india - development or developedment

2011-09-09T10:13:00.001-07:00

development in full swing in a crucial forest area of western ghats.

lol. the industry, whether it is green or non green, want to thrash the environment first before they can even think of calling it a night.

2011-09-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

mirror mirror on the wall,

who is corrupt of them all.

aint you tell me the top one

for everybody seems to be the looting one.

in the reddy bellary brothers episode, the yeddy-scam-urappa, the bjp has done no good for itself. it heads the only south india state ever in india's history.

yet, it is the most corrupt, inefficient, useless government perhaps karnatka has ever seen. shame on the people who voted the communal party to power.

add communal politics that combines corruption and you have garbage as a result.

bjp need not tie itself in knots. it needs to hang itself in knots.

2011-09-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

ah...you got to give credit to sonia/rahul/chidam/dig/manmohan team.

the massive corruption unleashed with massive looting of money, natural resources, minerals and people's tax money seems to be inviting action.

in 2g scam, although progress ought to have been faster, you have got the daughter of one of india's richest politicians and powerful regional chieftain in jail. you have got all-you-can-loot-kalmadi in jail. you have seen action in adarsh nasty housing scam.

now you have the much needed action in bellary case involving the reddy brothers who was indicted big time by lokayutha.

welcome action indeed by the sonia/rahul/chidam/dig/man team.

2011-04-30T14:54:00.002-07:00

no ma'm, it ain't "development". it is called "developed-ment".

legendary cse director asks

There is no policy for siting and number of ports in the country. The Central government knows only about “major” ports and leaves the rest of the business—permission to locate and build other ports—to state governments. There is no distinction between a major port and a state port. It is just a matter of how many one can fit into the coast as fast and profitably as possible. Nobody, therefore, knows how many ports are being built. Nobody cares about the cumulative impact on rivers of sand.

Surely, this cannot be called development. Can it?

no. hell no. hell hell hell no. but aren't we mistaken. india's development is actually for the developed. so we can call this "developed-ment".

2011-04-30T14:54:00.001-07:00

i am back...hopefully i will post one or two posts on 'development' in india :-)

2010-07-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

if i am a betting guy, i would bet on reddy brother's in bellary. they bought yedurrappa to his knees, made him cry in public and won in handsome manner the first round last year.

now, they will do it again. as spineless india's prime minister, dummy karnataka CM, toothless judiciary and 'developedment' focussed home minister and finance minister, i would be happy to bet on reddy's to continue the loot in bellary.

cbi inquiry. please do so. i would bet against that too.

if govt itself can loot in chattisgarh, in jharkhand, in madhya pradesh, why not reddy brother's in bellary. 'developedment' should be the same for everyone right?

2010-03-30T09:39:00.001-07:00

rape and loot. development in india at full swing.

please catch up on the sad bellary situation in tehelka.

2010-03-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

there are many avatar's in india. not only in orissa as reuters points out.

and many more avatar's need to happen to stamp out fake development for sure!!

2010-02-24T19:39:00.001-08:00

mr. ramesh is indeed a lonely man. in india, when you talk against fake development, you are indeed lonely.

but his orders on bt.brinjal, athirapally hydel project, goa mining stoppage, etc are HUGE for india.

you can be lonely sir, but you cannot afford to leave alone our crucial environment and forests alone.

please continue your good work.

2010-02-24T19:30:00.000-08:00

indeed, as mr.ram says, it is a sad day for india. when the renowned painter mr.hussain is living in a forced exile, it is not only a sad day but a shameful day for india.

the land of gautama and gandhi should hangs it head in shame when its famous painter is being chased by rabid fanatics.

india should take all steps to bring hussain back and hussain should not be fearful in showing his paintings. art cannot be censored. taliban censors art. india does not.

2010-02-22T12:23:00.000-08:00

can bloom change the world? can it eliminate or atleast replace in a major way the need for polluting coal power plants, destructive dams and dangerous nuclear power.

cbs 60 minutes had an interesting segment on it. please check read full story that can have the potential to change the world.

2010-02-19T19:49:00.001-08:00

kudo's to our energetic and caring minister of environment and forests mr.jairam ramesh on coming out against the stupid and destructive athirapally project.

after a long time, india's environment and forests has got a minister who seems to have a genuine eye for conservation.

kudo's mr.ramesh. may your good work continue.

we ruin our rivers
call it progress
we smash our forests
call it growth
we throw our tribals to dust
call it gdp
we kill our ecosystem
call it development
insanity has new word
in the lips of economists
fake development that is.

2010-02-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

run, don't walk on Shekar Dattatri interview with respect to india's forests/wildlife.

“If you put every one of our 30 tiger reserves together, it comes to about 40,000 sq.km. of land. That's about the size of a single reserve in Brazil, which is 35,000 sq.km. Several hundred rivers originate from natural parks and sanctuaries, and the blueprints of so many pharmaceutical drugs come from the forest. It's not just about saving the ‘poor animals'; if you must look at it that way, it's about saving ourselves.”

our policy makers, courts, politicians, urban middle class need to memorize the above day in and day out and only then perhaps they will realize unless we protect this 4% of india's land the rest 95% can survive.

but fake development does not care about facts right? it cares only about greed and money (and as in western world 'bailout's')!!

2010-02-18T16:22:00.001-08:00

a tribal from orissa nails india's fake developedment that even nobel laureates like amartya sen is singing paeans for.

In New Delhi, Kumti Majhi of the Kutia Kondh community welcomed the decision. “I am glad they have listened to our problems. They [the Church’s representatives] came and stayed in our hut and listened to us also…Why doesn’t the government listen,” he asked. “The government people only come and they go around in Vedanta’s helicopter, in Vedanta’s cars, and then they go back and say Vedanta is doing good things.”

remember if places like niyamgiri is killed in name of mining, india's soul and its crucial pillar (tribals in this case) gets killed. and nobody should be calling wanton killing as 'development'.

2010-02-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

kudos to mr.ramesh, india's minister of environment and forests on his bt brinjal decision.

when there are thousands of brinjal varieties and in no way shortage of brinjal, bt brinjal is a "solution" for which no 'problem' exists.

in terms of technology, it would have killed the thousands of brinjal varieties that is there in india.

and in mr.ramesh india looks like finally it may have a genuine environment minister.

2009-11-08T19:40:00.001-08:00

in india, especially in mumbai, inefficiency and utter incompetence gets rewarded mightily as the re-appointment of RR Patil as Home minister shows.

way to go india :-)

2009-11-02T16:31:00.001-08:00

as india sleeps on global warming, the mighty himalayas is retreating. the 2 minute documentary from bbc captures it vividly.

2009-10-25T17:47:00.001-07:00

endosulfan issue in kerala still persists like a festering wound as the communists at kerala level, like many of the previous governments, lag in bringing a quick closure.

like arundati roy points out, we have become like a absorbing sponge inputting everything onto us. everything except money does not matter.

2009-10-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

run. don't walk on hearing to arundati roy in devil's advocate with karan thapar.

i have been lax in posting getting caught in my work severely which i plan to quit very soon. meanwhile arundati last point is worth million words.

'what the muslim's are to bjp, the maoists are to congress'.

she hits the nail in the coffin called fake development and pseudo democracy. when will the land of mahatma and the land of buddha learn and correct and lead the world?

2009-07-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

tehelka has a good story on the raigad SEZ. if you can recall the farmers of raigad voted overwhelmingly against the SEZ which will throw several thousands farmers out of their livelihood in name of fake development back in late 2008.

SEZ, as this blog had chronicled in several cases, is the biggest fraud and land grab against rural india. it was a surprise to see for me that congress, the party that architected this dangerous land grab still was able to sustain its rural vote.

raigad case will prove whether our courts will show that corporate land grab is a no-go zone for rural india (or) in name of fake development anything and everything sells.

2009-07-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

here is an interview of the new minister of environment and forests.

he hits the nail on its head when he says and i quote "I am neither business-friendly nor business-hostile. Not here to impede growth. Not here to accelerate it."

that's exactly the point. as head of a very crucial ministry who is responsible for safeguarding the livelihood of hundreds of million of people who depend on india's rivers, wetlands, forests, coastal areas, etc, the ministry of environment and forests is very crucial in protecting these vital pillars so that they do not get destroyed mindless money making ventures that make the rich more richer.

the job of moef is simple. protect, preserve and nourish our ecosystems so that the people who depend on them can benefit in a sustainable long term manner and not the looters who come in to kill and make fast moolah.

for that the 'businessmen and investors' can always go to dalal street and wall street right so that they can risk and play in toxic assets in order to get mindless growth? and come begging for bail out's after that :-)

2009-07-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

here is an interesting article on how the green tribunal (aka national environment appellate authority) worked.

hopefully things will change under the new moef minister mr.jairam ramesh. after disastrous years of having moef ministers who treated their work as casual and junk, hopefully this crucial ministry will get due attention under the new moef.

2009-06-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

welcome back friends.. after an enforced break, this blog restarts, albeit slowly.... so many things happened in the interim though.

1. more and more bailout for corporate america came. if only 1% of that kind of effort is made to sustain our ecology!!!

2. congress party was a surprise winner of elections and that was not due to their SEZ policies but due to NREGA and RTI and other rural programs. it is now time for a real change from fake development policies of the past to sustainable development policies of the future.

3. the people of iran showed surprising spike for their rights. my verdict --> it will be brutally crushed as the world watches the other side. we are all ahmadinejad's right. we do not care about china's open abuses of human rights, we do not care about india's brutalisation of tribals in name of fake projects, we do not care of blatant human rights violations in myanmar, we did not wink when iraq was raped by america's fake war... so why do we care about iran.?. bro, it ain't matter bro.

4. and hey india's a surprise of surprise. india's new environment minister seems to be making the right noise and moves pertaining to india's environment.

so on we start, slowly chronicling the fake development of india, the massive abuse of india's ecology in name of development. of course, if there are good stories i will always blog it. if at all there is any. there is none so far and the picture when it comes to the environment of india is very bleak. hopefully our new environment minister mr.jairam ramesh will show a little positive attitude thereby bringing much needed strength of the ministry of environment and forests thereby giving the sorely needed protection of india's environment.

2009-02-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

you want to catchup on a weird news and a real good news then you can do it easily.

the weird news is that our noble prize winner dr.sen wants to forget we are in a recession and act like we are NOT in a recession.

the real good story is that of a young man returning back to his village to make a positive contribution.

well, dr.sen, how about some sub prime loans for you and your friends :-)

2009-02-16T14:28:00.001-08:00

can some 'ceo' in the world (of course who is not begging for tax payer bailout money) clarify the below statement of one of their buddies.

Stating that there was a need to strike a balance between development and environment...

when we hit tribals in niyamgiri with forced eviction is that a 'balance'?
when we hit several lakhs of tribals on fake eia in narmada dam project is that a 'balance'?
when we brutalize farmers in name of SEZ, is that a 'balance'?
when we rape million year old ecosytems like athirapally, is that a 'balance'?
when we pollute all our mother rivers so easily, is that a 'balance'?
when we have not still given proper compensation for world's biggest industrial disaster in bhopal, is that a 'balance'?

or is the ceo saying Stating that there was a need to strike a balance between balance sheets and environment...

perhaps our ceo's need more bailout money and then perhaps they will talk sensibly!!!

2009-02-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

sunita narain has an excellent editorial on the satyam saga. she has captured, as this blog has been pointing out- how corporate india has over-riden political/human india with greed, corruption, fakism, SEZ, displacing tribals, forcibly seizing land with huge political influence, you name the nastiness and it's there-how satyam saga will unravel in 'developed india'.

when rich people commit filthy things in name of developedment, it is okay. when rich ceo's commit fraud in name of company growth, it is okay. when rich industrialists hit in the stomach of tribals and seize their land, it is okay.

mahatma's india has become okay india!!!

2009-01-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

that's right india. that's cool india. that's awesome india.

now we have a solution for all our ills facing rural india. if those rural areas wants increased ground water level, then open that area to brutal mining even over the dead bodies of the local people who are opposed to the mining.

"Far from drying up streams, it will in fact lead to an increase in the ground water level," said Mukesh Kumar, head of the company's mining operations in Lanjigarh.

from when did brutal mining increase ground water levels? is there a precedent for this statement. also the ground water level and other water sources will get decimated by pollution due to indiscrimate and careless mining (both of which are common in india and other developing countries).

coming back, from when/where/which methodology/process/etc did mining lead to ground water increase?

looks like a wall street banker claiming his bank is sound and safe and the same time begging for bail out funds!!!

well in india anything is possible in india under name of fake developedment.

2009-01-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

as our 'beloved' war zero president bush leaves offices (at last americans woke up after 8 years of non stop disaster), you might want to catch up on his bushisms.

below one is icing on the cake on his bushisms.

"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."

2009-01-24T17:27:00.001-08:00

foolish villagers. country brutes. illiterates. know-nothing guys. these guys want to take india to 18th century without 'developedment'.

it seems several thousands people are opposed to setup a paper mill in their middle. as hindu reports, below para catches attention.

Establishing a paper mill would adversely affect the environment and agriculture activities in 20 villages, including Kalthurai, Kottathurai, Vattamalaipudur, Perichipalayam, Andinaickanvalasu, Alangiyam, Kongur, Undarpatti, Vellaigoundenvalasu, Manakadavu, Karupaiavalasu, Keeranur, Velur and Velkaraipatti, they alleged. This would also pollute the ground water. Over 2,000 hectares of cultivable land would turn barren and ultimately production of food grains would come to a halt, they apprehended.

what do they know huh? we need developedment guys. even if these villagers go to dust due to pollution, ground water loss, agricultural disaster - we need developedment.

after all ain't we the 'shining india', 'rising india', huh?

2009-01-19T13:44:00.001-08:00

kudos to rasheeda bhagat on her very good writeup on the mumbai terror attack vis-a-vis pakistan's own situation.

when it is clear even to a monkey, that the terrorists who killed innocent mumbaikars, israeli's, americans and british (never mind the weirdness of their foreign secy miliband's remarks), pakistan clearly refuses to see the sun that is shinging as brightly as it can on its terror deeds.

remember one thing. if you ride a dog to attack others, it is just a matter of time before the dog turns on you and kills you. pakistan is riding the terrorism dog a long time and it just matter of coming months before the dog unleashes the fury on its 'owner'.

as rasheeda clealry points out, indians (and the world) is clearly not amused by pakistan's antics. like she puts it.
But in response, all we’ve had from Pakistan so far are a bunch of lies, a string of denials, stirring up of war hysteria, empty threats, crocodile tears and doublespeak of the most treacherous variety.

enough!!!!! it is time for pakistan to act and turn over the terror leaders to india. failing which india should go ahead and cut off full diplomatic, trade, cultural ties with that country followed by surgical strikes in co-operation with elite israeli commando's to dismantle the terror infrastructure that is being patronised in that nation by the rogue intelligence agency called isi.

2009-01-18T18:21:00.000-08:00

hindu's editorial correctly points out miliband's weird ideas on the mumbai terror attacks. as this blog has repeatedly pointed out, killing innocents anywhere in name of problem somewhere else is pure terrorism.

the editorial correctly concludes,
What is worse, importing the Kashmir dispute and the need to resolve it into a discussion of what Pakistan needs to do immediately about the Mumbai terror attacks is remarkably insensitive. Such ham-handedness plays into the hands of those who are in denial and rationalise violent extremism by finding ‘just’ causes for it.

wonder if a terror attack like mumbai originates from pakistan's isi and happens in london or newyork, whether the same miliband's will be talking same weird things.

2009-01-17T21:27:00.000-08:00

i think our honorable prime minister woke up from a long slumber. he has told that the satyam fraud is a 'blot on our corporate image'

that's right sir.

the fraud that is happening in bhopal wherein the world's biggest human industrial disaster is not a blot.
the fraud that built narmada dam throwing out lakhs and lakhs of people is not a blot
the fraud that is proposing to be happening in several dam building works on top of fake eia and local opposition is not a blot
the fraud called athirapally dam in kerala amidst fake eia, strong local opposition and tribal displacement is not a blot
the massive land scam in independent india called SEZ is not a blot
i can go on and on.

the fact of the matter is, corporates have taken over government and when corporates and government mix, the cocktail that results will be a huge fraud as has been listed out in above cases.

satyam is just a cream on the cake called fake developedment in india.

2009-01-14T16:23:00.000-08:00

fox news has an interesting coverage on the satyam-world bank fiasco.

The great irony is that for many years, the World Bank has pushed hard for countries and institutions that take its money to be transparent, engage in "good governance" and expose their own corruption at every turn. On its website, the bank lists of hundreds of vendors and individuals who it has sanctioned for corruption in bank projects. But the bank list has never included firms that work directly for the bank.

in that coverage, the above para seems to suggest that world bank has 'pushed hard' on its side with respect to its borrowers to be more transparent.

how so? has world bank been transparent in funding stupid and unsustainable dam projects, has world bank been transparent in its dealing on environmental impact reports, has world bank been transparent in funding government development projects vis-a-vis forests.

the answer is no. even in the narmada dam case, it took huge efforts and pressure to make the world bank see reason.

no wonder, corruption is very prevalent. who cares dude? as long as 'developedment' of the 'rich' happens, world bank executives take a fat pay cheque every month.

2009-01-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

outrageous, disgusting, fraud, no rights - these are not the words that can explain the outrageous government act that it is trying to bail out satyam by paying satyam expenses, salaries, etc with potential money for bailout ranging from 500 to 2000 crore rupees.

somebody should stop this NONSENSE. msn viewers are right bang on here in opposing the bailout.

in a country where hundreds of millions of people live in desperate situation earning barely 50 rupees a day (close to a dollar), the government talks of bailout out high paid highly educated and software code factory employees of satyam.

satyam should be torn down and with help of satyam clients should be given to other IT companies. satyam confidence with customers is zero and with that satyam potential to get new clients is absolute zero.

although the fraud is not of satyam employees orignation - in dog-eat-dog-corporate-world, in corporate-destroy-environment&tribals, corporate-are-the-greatest-story-in-free-market - a poor country like india should use the money for education, rural heath care, environment protection, drinking water, etc and NOT on a company that is sinking faster than titanic did.

let this fake development of india stop atleast now or else more non sense like satyam bailout will be the norm of the day.

as dr.samuel says in his post (below), india's officials and urban wealthy have been dancing on dead bodies of india's farmers. has somebody ever bailed them out.
Dr. S. N. Samuel: I am strongly against government bailing out multi-million dollar companies when they go bust. Does the government bail out poor farmers when they get into debt to the point of committing suicide?

2009-01-11T20:28:00.000-08:00

where do i stand on the israeli aggression on gaza. am i really using the word 'aggression' here.

couple of points. first on israel's side.

1. hamas, a terrorist organization, that has vowed to wipe out israel from world's map won due to fatah party's wide spread corruption.

2. having done that they then quickly escalated it to an agenda of gaza against israel.

3. firing continuous rockets onto israel, hiding bomb's in people's middle, using human beings as shields, etc are some of their backend terror tactics

4. an impotent and incapable leadership like india will keep quiet if rockets fall into india. but not israel. so naturally hamas rocket making/launching/smuggling capability has to be hit.

5. terrorism is terrorism. as plain as that. there are no quarters in that. whether it is 9/11, 26/11 or hamas rockets - all are same.

couple of points. against israel.

1. hitting gaza with huge tons of bombs makes sense to take out hamas capacity. but causalities also has to be watched. israel should have definitely launched commando attacks first on crucial hamas targets and then followed by air attacks if needed. in this way civilian casualities could have been minimised dramatically

2. opening of vital gaza crossings for children, women and injured a must. this is needed so that humanitarian needs are taken care.

3. israel should have clear hamas terrorists leadership target. they should launch precise attacks on rockets sites, terror leadership positions sparing civilian incursions as much as possible. the cowardly terrorist hamas, no different than pakistan's isi agency or al qadea, has to be taken out but with minimal civilian casualties.

4. work with saner palestinan elements so that common palestinaians would be treated as equal to an average common jew. everybody is a human being and each one deserves respect and opportunities. blockade of normal palestianans would mean that majority of civilians live under oppressed economic conditions which means more joy for terrorist organizations like hamas.

let us be very clear. pakistan's isi or al qaeda or ltte or hamas - these groups need to be shown blood in real terms. only then they can be silenced and sanity prevail.

for short term, terrorism has to be wiped out. long term israel has to live as good neighbours. then only we can gurantee peace in the region.

with great power comes great responsibility. after this flush out operation, let's hope israel shows much more responsibility in bringing about lasting peace.

2009-01-10T22:20:00.000-08:00

karan thapar, as we all know, is a hard hitting journalist. he has written a piece about the outrageours, disgusting, disgraceful, inhuman, un-democractic arrest and illegal detention of binayak sen by the chattisgarh government.

you can catch it up here.

But until then, the cry of a wife whose husband has been in jail for 19 months, facing a trial that could drag on for years, despite appeals for his release from 26 Nobel laureates and most of the civil liberty associations in India, needs to be heard. We would be heartless and wicked if we are deaf to such cries.

as we condemn the murderous terrorist attack by isi sponsored thugs and lunatics on mumbai, we need to take the same brush and condemn very strongly the state sponsored attack on dr.binayak sen.

indeed across india and across the world, when government acts in lunatic fashion like in binayak case, the condemenation should be swift and stronger. the terrorists and the state sponsored terrorism in this case are both one and the same.

2009-01-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

this picture by hindu on a kashmir protest caught my eye. kashmir has now cooled off a bit. relentless terrorism from pakistan based isi is ebbing slowly, local youth have become wary and elections seem to be giving local people a gateway to elect good honest leaders to power.

i know i am trivializing the kashmir problem. but with brutal terrorism fuelled by isi backed jihadists taking a small break, it is time for india to move swiftly and prove to the kashmir youth that india is their country, india offers much more secular, economic and civilian prosperity. the youth of kashmir like in the picture should be the crown jewel of india's youth and not lathi bashed youths.

india needs to invest in its own people and what better way to start from jammu and kashmir. some basic things such as honest government, accountable officials, well equipped and well paid accountable police officers, well protected borders, sustainable economic policies, clean drinking water and sanitation, women's rights - all can be started with jammu and kashmir as the focus. simple and basic things that are taken for granted in say britan or america. but a HUGE thing in india :-)

2009-01-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

oh is it? i did not know that for sure.

FICCI and CII, however, said the Satyam episode should not be seen as a blot on all the Indian firms.

as raju, the disgraced ceo of satyam software becomes the poster child for india's pampered and corrupt companies, the industry lobby quotes as above.

oh is it? all companies are god's angels and only satyam is rotten.

when indian companies can thrash poor triabls, kick poor farmers in their stomach, forcibly acquire tens of thousands of acres of land in name of 'development', pollute india's mother rivers like shit, they can do anything.

and raju is a classic example of india's corporate honcho's. the only difference is that raju has committed a huge accounting fraud whereas other companies do environmental and tribal fraud day in and day out.

oh is it cii? we all are dumb indians you know. to shake and nod our head in appreciation to the wonderful stuff india's corporates is doing for marginalized sections of india in name of 'fake development'.

(the disgraced chairman of un-satyam software. he is the poster boy of what's wrong with the macho, honcho, sez chewing, farmer kicking, tribal and environment thrashing indian industry)

2008-12-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

here is an amazing news item in hindu. as india's government, industry and elite urban middle class races to destroy india's fragile and crucile ecosystem, mother nature tells 'hold on folks'.

a purple frog with a pig-like snout has been found and the picture is amazing. if only we give priority to our crucial ecosystem, just like we give super priority to fake development!!!!

2008-12-30T21:10:00.000-08:00

here is the article that summarizes the sorry state of impotent political leadership of india that brutalizes and abuses its own people while standing without pants when isi sponsored pakistani jehadi terrorists kill innocent indians and foreign nationals.

the last 2 para's summarizes it aptly.

Just the way Pakistan goes through the motions of cracking down on its terror groups, New Delhi responds to each terrorist strike in a perfunctory or mechanical way, without commitment or resolve. And just as Pakistan has a track record of easing up on its terror groups when the spotlight is off, India’s leaders go back to business as usual no sooner than a terrorist attack has begun to fade from public attention.

While Pakistan is guilty of sponsoring terror, India’s leadership is guilty of encouraging terror and making the country an easy prey. Make no mistake: If Pakistan is to dismantle its state-reared terror complex, India’s leaders will have to first dismantle their terror-emboldening outlook.

considering the israeli's response on continuous attacks from the terrorist group of hamas (which also heads the palestine government), it clearly shows india's security apparatus can be attacked anytime, by anybody at any minute.

israel is bang on. when it sounds terrorism, talks terrorism, walks terrorism and does terroism, then it is terrorism. plain and simple. hamas which has in its charter to eliminate isreael from world map does terrorism, then israel has the rights to take out that terror group.

the use of force is necessary and considering gaza is crowded, civilian casaulties will be there which is tragic, unfortunate and should be fully avoided. but the goal of taking out hamas the terrorism outfit should not back down.

let's be clear. india's political leaders pee if chinese moves their troops 2 feet into india. the same india's political leadership wears sarees and bangles when pakistan's isi cooly sends suicide terrorits into india.

but the same india when it wants to terrorize the tribals and marginalized poor acts like a hero talking fake developedment.

2008-12-24T19:32:00.001-08:00

let's get a 'upper middle' class reaction to india's economic troubles. well, it wants to build more SEZ on the stomach's of poor india's farmers. and we are 'fortunate' that we can build more special economic fake zones!!!

Fortunately, India, in general, and Maharashtra, in particular, are suitable locations for SEZ projects. Taking advantage of the current situation, the Maharashtra Government must go all out to encourage the SEZ projects.

that's right. fortunate are urban wallah's for sure. fortunate are the corrupt businessmen and impotent politicians.

this when at a time even when maniac growth-environment go to hell-poor farmers go to toilet-rules and regulations go to BS companies are cutting back.

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd may go slow on certain of its planned projects such as the Rs 5,000-crore Rewas port project, the Navi Mumbai SEZ project and the Rs 30,000-crore semi-conductor project in response to the global financial meltdown. Instead, it will focus more on its core businesses that include refining and petrochemicals.

that's right india. let's borrow more, let's stamp our farmers on their stomach's more, let's pamper to the upper middle class more, let's do more sub prime loans and be fortuante and build the economy from upper middle class to richer class thereby thrashing the several hundred millions of india's poor, marginalised, farmers and rural people.

fortunate we are indeed :-)

2008-12-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

satyam (meaning truth) perhaps did the most un-satyam, or shall we say in reverse maytas, thing.

the management headed by the father raju proposed that satyam acquire 2 companies that is in the real estate sector and run by father's own 2 america educated son's using the cash of satyam and hence india's fourth largest IT company can also become perhaps india's second largest real estate company.

whoahhh....it is like google acquiring toll brothers. it is like blue cross acquiring trump holding. well, it is like the craziest thing in the world wherein a big IT company is buying a 'big' real estate comapny.

and it get more crazier when you note that the raju family perhaps have 8% of the satyam stake and the investors hold close to 70% and with the minuscule control of the company, the father raju proposed to use 1.3 billion dollars of cash to give it to his son's and acquire 2 'great' real estate companies thereby wiping out cash out of satyam and totally branching into unrelated area and that too in a world economy that is bordering on disaster and where cash is king!!!!! and the great board of directors including vinodh dham, the 'father of pentium' reportedly signed off the 'great' deal!!!

we all know india's corporate care BS when it comes to environment, when it comes to safe working conditions, when it comes to honesty, etc. but satyam-maytas fiasco tells something more. something more is really rotten amongst the families that run india's biggest companies as family holding in spite of being very minority shareholders of the company!!!

2008-12-20T20:25:00.000-08:00

i had written that terrorism, terrorists and terror leaders have no causes on which they wreck havoc. even if the entire world is at peace and peaceful they will invent new reasons to attack and cause massive bloodletting.

salman rushdie is right on the same lines.

Imagine the economic and social problems of Muslims in India is solved, Salman Rushdie said the other day; imagine the Kashmir problem is also solved; imagine too, the Israelis and Palestinians have made peace. Would al Qaeda and the various self-proclaimed jihadists "then put their guns down?"

He has no illusions any such thing would happen, he said firmly.

The jihadists are bent not only on "dragging us into the Middle Ages," he declared but are also planning on world domination. "It is all about power grabbing."

yep. salman rushdie is right. the terror brains wont stop until they are finished. let us be under no illusions. there is no doubt that gujarat carnage should NOT have happened, there should no doubt that kashmiri's deserve peaceful life like you and me and there is no doubt that if israel is smart they will smash the palestine issue into a peace pipe rather than a violent pipe.

but.... even if all these happens the terrorists do not care. they simply want to kill more people all the time for no reason. they will misquote ancient texts for no reason to wreck havoc.

unless terrorist brains are killed and terrorism infrastructure dismantled, what the world has seen in terms of 9/11 or 26/11 is nothing.

2008-12-20T20:17:00.000-08:00

we all for sure has been tracking subprime mess that has been unwinding in america. the great capitalist nation called america has become the great bailout nation.

bear stearns - bailout damn it. merge with jp morgan
lehman - let it go down but hey its assets(??) owned by other insitutions bailout done
citigroup - yep sure, why not
bank of america, wellsfargo/wachovia - yep they can get couple of tens of billions in bailout
car companies (gm, chrysler, ford) - sure. around 20 billion quick money no probs.
credit card companies like american express - if they want sure no issues
fannie mae/freddie mac - whoops. well we have no issues bailing them out
countrywide financials - well didn't we merge it into bank of america??
goldman sachs, morgan stanely - no problem. but let them become banks first and then we can bailout them easy...

amidst this total collapse of 'free market' economy in america, one thing that has not been noticed is the plunge of oil from 150 to 40 bucks. a totally manipulated market oil prices seldom reflect the real situation.

india's petroleum minister is right when he tells oil is manipulated.
“Oil prices on a roller coaster have created only uncertainty. What we now need is to rediscover stable market with transparent regulations; the market where producers as well as consumers find equal respect,” he said.

he is absolutely right. in name of 'free market', 'trading', 'globalisation', america has let loose the monster of greed, corruption and deregulation.

what we, as a world, need is not 'free market' but 'correct markets' and 'common sense markets' and 'common sense regulation' and cutting down speculation in name of higher maniac growth.

ok now. should we bailout oil from 40's back to 100's or is 40 itself a huge price for oil which probably should go into 20's if world economy shrinks further?

2008-12-15T19:19:00.001-08:00

latest statistics on agriculture front is a disaster of india's fake developedment that is going on. you catch it here.

as per the report, "Farmer suicides in the country since 1997 is now 1,82,936."

vowww.. that is 1.82 lakhs and nine hundred thirty six farmers!!!!

god save india. when we do not care or respect our crucial farming community with proper policies, minimum support price, agricultural infrastructure, etc, it does not take terrorists to destroy india. we are destroying ourselves!!!

2008-12-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

there was some comments on the taj hotel terrorist attack by none other ratan tata himself.

i think his comments, if i am not wrong, are very inappropriate. you can read his comments here.

everybody in the world, including pakistan's isi backed terrorists, knows that indian police (and india's corrupt and impotent politicians) are the weakest in the world. but when it came to killing the terrorists brave men entered taj well known that they can get killed (considering the zero training and useless equipments that have).

he may be right in telling that our security apparatus was not good (of course we cannot mount an israeli type commando operation ever) but there is no point in criticizing the brave policemen and commando's either for they are severely curtailed by india's inept security infrastructure.

for that matter, taj with its cash rich coffers had no security worth its name whatsoever inspite of repeated warnings from intelligence agencies that an assault is pending. and it would be great if tata can use his 'influence' to make sure india's luckless policemen can get some basic equipments just as he uses his 'influence' in getting clearance to the environmentally destructive projects for the developedment of india!!!

and no we are not going to talk about fake tata development projects across india for now :-)

2008-12-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

when the clueless prime minister selected his finance minister to run the diasatrarous home ministry, one thing was really clear. in the vast expanse of congress government there is no qualified and strong person to run the home ministry that he had pull out an important minister in the middle of economic meltdown.

but leaving politics aside, what should PC do. very simple. as finance minister he opened india's forests, rivers, coastal areas, etc to unprecedented abuse by businessmen, but as home minister he needs to make sure our borders are not open for joyful terrorism.

some measures he can do, that his predecessor and one of india's worst home minister failed, are,

1. provide coastal security to india's vast coastal borders atleast in very crucial places.
2. provide police the freedom to act on terror inputs without political interference. make sure they are paid well, taken care well, are not overworked, are staffed adequately and giving the latest training measures.
3. make sure our intelligence agency RAW which has been slumbering deeply is wakened up.
4. make sure our important urban areas like mumbai has its own SWAT teams on the line's of america.
5. make sure that the muslim community is not alienated by any means of unwanted and unpardonable riots over the mumbai terror attacks.
6. pursue terrorist case with pakistan and the 9/11 forgotten america.
7. form closer relationship with isreal on fighting modern day terrorism.
8. make sure the ground level informer network in all important areas of india is strong and thriving.
9. secure our nuclear installations, airport, aircraft and naval bases with much more stringent security.
10. tell pakistan that they cannot wash off isi-backed activities everytime there is an attack. tell them and show them action in terms of very strong diplomacy, cutting off cricketing ties, reducing the interaction between pakistan and india dramatically, cutting of free trade and most importantly cutting off the human face that india was showing to pakistan.

lot needs to be done. or else another 26/11 will come like a candy on india's doorstep. will our reluctant home minister lay the stone for the above in his short tenure, or will he run his home ministry just like he ran his finance ministry wherein businessmen had rampant access whereas common man was completely cut off in name of fake developedment?

2008-12-05T22:45:00.000-08:00

surprisingly, saif ali khan and kareena, has showed that movie stars have brains too. just kidding folks. but their statement on the mumbai massacre was very honest and upto the mark.

and let us be very clear on one more point. there are tens and tens of millions of indian muslims who hate terror, who are peace loving like you and me, who have children like you and me and who have condemned this terror attacks. and there should be no reason to hate anybody on their religion more so when these terrorists belog to islam.

terrorism knows no religion. if you give a chance, bin laden will convert to hindu and start another 9/11. if you give a chance prabahakaran will convert himself to sinhalese and attack colombo again and again. if you give a chance pakistan based terrorist organisation and their isi backers will convert to christianity, atleast for a day, to perpetuate biggest attacks on innocent people.

terrorists have no religion and no heart. they have to be crushed ruthlessly. and at the same time we need to question the politicians who are virtually useless and impotent whether it comes to gujarat massacre or mumbai terror attacks.

2008-12-05T22:28:00.000-08:00

one thing that is coming out of mumbai attacks is that 'peace groups' want to address the 'root cause of terrorism'.

oh yeah. that's like asking bin laden to give justification for why he did 9/11.

now let us be very very clear. the babri masjid demolition, the gujarat massacre, the iraqi war, etc are NOT pardonable and are huge blemishes on us. but that is no license for terrorists to come and attack innocent civilians in a totally different place.

to condemn huge violations on human rights such as gujarat massacre and to make sure it is never ever repeated we should take all steps but that does not mean one of the steps is to give a license to kill innocent people in mumbai or other places.

let's be very clear on this. terrorism is not an answer to violations done by certain individuals like narendra modi or george bush.

b.raman had an interesting article in outlook on what actions india can take without going for say a full fledged war or a precise attack on terrorist camps in pakistan. he is right. we need to make sure that pakistan is made a pariah until it can renounce terror fully. we cannot fight terror in india or globally unless pakistan is made to confront terror fully.

2008-12-04T19:25:00.001-08:00

when the pakistan based isi backed terrorists stuck in the jewish center, they abused, tortured and killed all israeli/american nationals.

one little kid survived. it would have been a HUGE disaster if this little baby was also shot dead.

agreed, that isrealis have been heavy handed and lot of times violent in handling the palestine issue. the israeli-palestine issue that should have been sorted through discussion long long back has been festering for a long time resulting in kill me - kill you situation.

but what is the logic in killing the innocent parent's of this little boy and potentially trying to kill this kid itself.

which religion pardons this kind of behaviour. which ideology wants this kind of brutality. which nation can tolerate this kind of abusive people. which nation can sit idle and watch terrorists run amok?

we have answers for all these but we refuse to act and call spade a spade. until we do that, we will be tutored to be responsible by america, tutored to talk by china, tutored to go slow by pakistan's civilian government. all till the next terror attacks after which all the tutoring will begin again.

india's impotent security apparatus and corruput politicians will make sure india is looted internally within and raped from external terrorists.

welcome to this double whammy of fake devlopedment and fake national security!!

2008-12-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

as so what happens as the terror attack -on innocent people, visiting tourists, totally unconnected jewish center - go into our rear view mirror of life.

let me put the steps.

1. ghastly terror attack happens in india (and mostly in mumbai or north india)
2. our impotent politicians will tell they are taking all steps to prevent it.
3. some public anger will force terror tour politicians like the maha CM to resign. (once you eat full you burp right to digest. similarly if a politician sheds tears on innocent people killed in terror attacks you give a loud burp!!!)
4. our investigators go to work and of course after 15 years or so they will build a case.
5. our security agencies, intelligence agencies and police wallahs all give usual noises and then fall asleep in incompetence.
6. meanwhile pakistan based terrorists along with their masters in ISI will be laughing like hell and planning the next attacks on an impotent india.
7. india will send its cricketers telling 'normal relations' are needed.
8. america, oblivious to the fact that the next massive attack on its own people will come from pakistan based terrorists, will be telling india and pakistan to talk and sort out and talk about responsibility. (oh yeah, i am wondering why americans is not willing to sit down for discussion with al qaeda as a responsible nation!!!)
9. china, heartily laughing, will tell that india pakistan issue is a major issue and urge us to talk and meanwhile crush its own citizens in human rights abuses
10. several reputed columnists will write about india being a matured power and suggest to do nothing.
10. a new terror attack on india leaves 100 dead and 300 injured.
11. repeated steps 1 to 10 again.

welcome to india. welcome to fake developedment. welcome to fake nationalism. welcome to fake politics. welcome to fake security. welcome, above all, to the 'chalta hai' nation.

2008-12-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

it seems wipro systems, one of india's many code factories, is offering engineering candidates, jobs in bpo divisiosn/call center divisions.

so what's wrong in it. majority of india's engineers mug their studies, graduate from engineering colleges that probably does not have even have the basic infrastructure and above all know nothing about anything practical since the studies are 90% theory.

so what if they work in call center's. except for the words 'bachelor of engineering', they have nothing to show in terms of real skill.

developedment of india means we have real change in education including engineering. till that happens, our engineers can do anything from bathroom cleaning to software coding to call center jobs.

2008-12-03T19:39:00.001-08:00

as horror stories of the dastardly terrorist attack on the maximum city of mumbai ( a city that leaves no one hungry at night), trickle in, one common thread is clear.

india, the biggest democracy ruled by the most inept politicians and burercrats of entire world, has no means to fight the terror. from screwed up bullet proof vests for policemen to a very senior politician telling dog remarks on the family of nsg commando sandeep unnikrishnan who died fighting the terrorists to india's absolute lack of preparedness in combating terror to finding a huge quantity of rdx several days after the attacks - you have it all.

26/11 is not the first terror attack nor it will be the last. since mid 70's till now india has faced several thousands terror attacks and has lost several thousands innocent lives.

but our politicians. oh they are safe talking about fake developedment to the gullible people day in and day out.

more scary is the fact that probably india's nuclear plants is woefully under protected. next time the pakistan based terrorists won't target small places in mumbai. but they will go after big one's like the nuke power plant in india. under the stupid india america nuclear deal, tens and tens of nuclear power plants are being proposed. all of which will be sitting ducks to terrorists.

one thing is clear. india is a super soft state when it comes to terrorism and 26/11 is just a comma in the story. many more terror attacks will be coming for sure as india's spoiled, rich and corrupt politician makes hay everyday in office and cares a hoot about india's security and innocent people's lives.

welcome to 'incredible india'
welcome to 'raising india'
welcome to 'shining india'
welcome to 'terrorist infested soft state india'

2008-12-01T19:44:00.000-08:00

2 different politicians belonging to different religions and different polar of politics.

but same shocking statement. from the party that delivered one of the top terrorists gift wrapped to pakistan and from the party which perpetuated the gujarat carnage comes this lipstick statement.

from the not-so-left party and more shockingly from a very senior and experienced politician and chief minister of kerala comes this absolutely senseless statement.

my own country bleeds and the politicians are turning this disastrous tragic moment of mumbai terror attack into terror tours for movie industry crorepathi directors, callous remarks about the small attacks, lipstick comment and dog wont even visit remarks.

how low can our politicians go. they have gone several times under the belt of innocent people. now they can go even much much lower.

disgrace has become a meaningless word.

2008-11-30T21:59:00.000-08:00

i used to wonder whether there are any easy and natural way to repel mosquitoes (apart from keeping your surroundings clean). here is an interesting article from ibnlive which tells that elephant dung can be used to repel mosquitoes effectively.

"Elephant dung is the cheapest mosquito repellent. And like herbal medicines, it has no side effects," says Maheshwar Rai, a cattle farmer who bought five kg for Rs.20.

Rai said that he would use the dung "to save my family and half a dozen cows from the mosquito menace, which becomes very bad in early winter".

2008-11-30T21:51:00.000-08:00

as the great city of mumbai stands stabbed and bleeding by dastardly terrorists attacks, 2 articles caught the outrage. they are here and here.

disgrace of the cm - that's summaries the anger aptly. the entire mahastra machinery led by its impotent chief minister and careless home minister stands naked in this brazen assault on the maximum city.

Even CM Vilasrao Deshmukh was not spared: ‘‘Please, please use all the might of the media, if any, to ensure this disgrace of a CM is booted out by tomorrow.’’ The presence of filmmaker Ram Gopal Verma and other hanger-ons in Deshmukh’s entourage which visited the Taj hotel on Sunday has also come under severe criticism. ‘‘They have turned this tragedy into terror tourism,’’ said an onlooker. Pune-based sports shop owner Sundeep Grover is livid, describing Patil’s comment as ‘‘ridiculous’’.

and gaurav karla hits in the nail in his ibnlive blog as
Instead, it has them by the balls and is making them scream. Shobha De says enough is enough. Well Miss De enough; was enough long before the peace of South Mumbai as shattered. It was enough when bombs went off in hospitals in Ahmedabad, it was enough when in busy markets in Delhi, Diwali shopping turned into a gory dance of death.

this terror is new and it looks just a start. the terror planners were very clear on what they wanted. they had following key objectives.

1. hold the maximum city to ransom for several days.
2. put india to shame.
3. terrorise locals.
4. hit the vital (and elite) section of mumbai so that nobody feels safe.
5. target innocent americans, britons and israelis, so that these vital population feels unsecure about india and hence hitting mumbai's business and india's confidence.

as the impotent indian politicians whimper and whine on the attacks, the terror sponsors will be gleefully celebrating this masscare and getting ready for more.

and in india they practise today what they might be implmenting in other parts of the world tomorrow. as far as indian politicians are concerned, they were impotent before terrorists stuck, will be impotent during the terror attacks and will be impotent after these attacks. sorry to say this, "this is india, where nothing matters. not even a massive terror attacks".

2008-11-30T13:15:00.000-08:00

as we all recoile from the dastardly attacks in the maximum city of mumbai, one cannot but help to wonder how many times we have taken the 'chalta hai' attitude.

chalta hai when it comes to repeated bomb blasts
chalta hai when it comes to absolute zero security plans
chalta hai when a main govt minister delivered notorious dangerous terrorists after a hijack attempt
chalta hai when hundreds of crores is being spent on black cat cover for even the grandson of the congress president but zero protectino of our borders.
chalta hai when it comes to the lies of politicians

the terror head of departments across the border should be laughing at our chalta hai attitude and of course planning the next attack.

so in this tragedy here is what the politicians will be thinking as they believe strongly in our chalta hai attitude.

chief minister vilasrao deshmukh: damn, these terrorists will depress the real estate price of mumbai. damn it. i have invested so much efforts into converting police into brokers for me, my family and friends and damn it, these terrorists have reduced the value of real estate in mumbai which is already under pressure due to the stupid bankers of america. damn it. c'mon mumabi. let it go. let's revive the spirit of mumbai. huh? i already took ram gopal vermaji and my actor son for a tour to the devastated place and as my home minister said these small things happen-ji. so let's revive the same spirit of mumbaikars and get back to work huh?

prime minister oxfordian clueless singh: well, in oxford we call this as economic theory of disturbance. sometimes when external events like this happens, well, there will be a small disturbance. but india will be strong enough to raise as the next financial tiger. i am going to send our home minister who has so far presided of around 10 terrorists attacks and has resolutely faced every one of those.

young non-dashing invisible son rahulji: i would like to stand by my elders, prime minister cluelessji, home minister repeated terrorist attack withstander patilji are all doing a great job. we have faced several attacks and will face several further but let me tell you our government will not be bowed by these kind of silly acts!!!

shiv sena riot thackery: damn it, let's invade every country in our neighborhood. it is a pity that mumbai ruled by north indians, have no clue. damn it, we got to raid every country in the world for this. let us call georige porgie bushie asap and take action. now which country do we attack? meanwhile let me attack mumbai with another round of riots so that i can give an all clear.

seriously guys, if this was america, these guys will never ever be in power again for their life. the home minister is simply a DISASTER, the prime minster a CLUELESS WONDER and the maharastra government a walking dead body.

mumbai is a goner. a city only can take so much. but mumbai has been taking a lot of shit. its police has been communalised, criminalized, abused, ineffective and useless and mainly have become brokers for clinching real estate, settling politicial scores, keeping tab on opposition politicians, etc

it is no surprise mumbai is getting hit like this. if it is chennai or hyderabad, the people will react with extreme anger against politicians and hence politicians are atleast teeny tiny bit careful in letting police do basic jobs. in mumbai police have become jokers and have been made useless for anything.

and next time, it wont be small. all our vital installations like airports, aircraft bases, nuclear power plants all are vulnerable as the security in these places are surely thin.

god alone can save mumbai and india from these useless politicians and ruthless terrorists.

2008-10-15T16:04:00.001-07:00

as orissa burnt due to communal violence and dastardly attacks on churches and christians continued, our america returned chief minister was busy fiddling the violin.

but when it comes to being in the pocket books of industries, he seems to be much more alert as his state police arrested the anti posco protest leader abhay sahu.

and posco india managing director seems to be a really funny guy.
At an international seminar on steel-making this year, Posco India managing director Soung Sik Cho said people needed to open their eyes to the possibilities the steel plant could offer them.

he is right. mining in jagatsinghpur will bring,
* displacement
* air, water and ground pollution
* begging in the streets of bhubaneswar
* loss of land including fertile agricultural land

well, in india, all of the above is called 'development'. development for the rich and destruction for the poor.

2008-10-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

let's look at some of george w. bush' legacy and how he is 'lovvveed' by the prime minister of india. i think american people are in no love at all with their own leader.

1. started a fake war in iraq.
2. had no worth environmental track record to speak for.
3. let loose regulation of commodities and financial industries wrecking havoc.
4. was in deep slumber till the financial system was on the verge of collapse.
5. huge mess created in firing of US attorney's and repeated misdoings of his chief attorney general.
6. without trial holding several hundreds people in guantanamo bay.
7. ran an administration that seems to be taking back america to 19th century rather than being 21st century leader.

and last but not the least, signed a nuclear treaty with india, when his own country has not had a new nuclear power plant in 30 years.

and our honorable 'developedment' oriented prime minister hugs him and says 'the people of india loves you'. well dear prime minister i think you are wrong. you may love W as you are in same category of pursuing fake policies, but majority of india's coastal area people, ecosystem people, marginalsied and discarded tribal people are not in that 'love category'.

2008-10-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

i was caught up in the whirpool of financial messs that is sweeping the world. as i tried to balance my sudden heavy work, catching up on the obama-mccain campaign, reading up and coming to speed on the financial mess, this blog took a back seat.

i hope to be regular from today posting as usual.

but as a parting shot, you have to wonder. wonder about the 'zero govt, less govt' crowd that was craving for more and more of de regulation.

when govt steps back from correct regulation and proper enforcement, when govt steps back from education its poorest sections, when govt steps back from providing proper health care for its citizens, the result will be a huge mess.

why do we elect a government, if all the government is going to do to be in the pocketbooks of wall street and industry wallah's, who are greedy day in and day out.

as india destroys its ecosystems and tribals and marginalised people in name of fake development, it can learn mighty lessons from the greedy wall street that destroyed all foundations of basic economics in its quest to be 'innovative' and 'more developed'!!!!

when it comes to rich wall street titans, socialism means more money from the government, capitalism means less regulation from the government!!!!

2008-09-09T19:08:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From:
Date: Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 1:55 PM
Subject: re: Pressure tactics
To: bleditor@thehindu.co.in

hello hindu,
please refer to article by b.s.raghavan at http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/09/10/stories/2008091050050900.htm

kudos to the author on the brilliant article. the article correctly pinpoints the real issue in singur (and in most other places in india where industries are being pushed on the throats of tribals, rural people and vital ecosystems) wherein the multi thousand crore industries and politicians have seldom cared for the real issues on the ground.

the industry and the government should also note that if they had followed an open and honest policy of acquiring land, such impasse would not have occured. instead they went on the route of cajoling and forcing the land acquisition which has led to the current situation.

more sad is the remarks of infosys human resources head on his 'scary' situation remarks. firstly, infosys has nothing to do with the singur impasse and would have been served very well by keeping quite and secondly there is nothing 'scray' when a land owner asks for his basic rights.

when the situation at ground level is tense and when it calls for soft handling and plenty of give and take, ill advised comments will serve no purpose.

but what else can we expect from the industries that want cheap land no matter what human and environmental costs it involves.

2008-09-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

as india's politicians seldom care on the crucial angle of global warming, there is a new study that shows that india is increasingly moving up in the carbon chain.

india's coastal areas, its agriculture, its water sources, etc all will be under huge threat if global warming is not attacked head on. burying the head in sand and telling there are no issues means we are setting a huge death trap for future generations due to climate change.

well, when india policy on basic development itself has been shredded in the maniac process of mad rush to develop, where is the time, energy and focus to concentrate on climate change. as long as politicians and businessmen are safe in their air conditioned offices, there is no climate i guess.

2008-09-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

as the singur row on the tata nano plants swings back and forth, i found one interesting commentary.

adding to the sorry state, is the statement of infosys human resources head saying infosys is considering all options on their plans in west bengal.

below para from the article summarizes it nicely.
India Inc should guard against being seen as an insensitive, self-centred gang of greedy gargoyles out of sync with basic needs and expectations of the people. Without an India which is internally at peace with itself, where all categories of players (government, corporates, civil society, common folks) and all sectors (private, public, rural, urban, organised and unorganised) live in harmony, India Inc itself will come to grief. It should remember that its first and foremost obligation is to reinforce the efforts of elected governments to ameliorate the lot of the poor and the downtrodden, and that it should hold its wealth in trust to this end.

as this blog has repeatedly pointed out, the situation at ground level would not have come to such extreme has the not-so-communist communist government had been open, honest and caring from day one. instead they rushed head long and fell in the feet of tata's without caring a single minute about the farmers who own the land.

singur (and many other cases like it) points to the increasing decay that has set in politics as corporate heads wave and weave with their money power grabing land and natural resources at dead cheap prices. this has to stop and instances like singur atleast will put a semicolon if not a full stop to this mad process of development.

2008-09-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

as kosi river wrecks havoc and india's elite politicians - who are managing policies and processes that squarely favor in making rich more richer - fight it out, the blame squarely lies in their lackadaisical attitude. hindustan times aug 28 editorial sums it all.

well, in india the new delhi based politicians are busy touting their grand 'success' day in and day out. realities seldom matter.

The Hindustan Times, August 28, 2008, EDITORIAL

Not just a force of nature at all

Could the Kosi River Divastation have been allayed by human intervention? The answer: Yes

T HE FLOODS are back in Bihar. And this time the governments — the state and the Centre — can't just blame the rainfall. If anyone can be blamed for the breach in the Kosi barrage in Nepal and the calamity that has followed, it is New Delhi. Under a 1954 treaty with Nepal, the safety and maintenance of the embankment is India's responsibility But clearly this has not been done. The re , sult of such a lackadaisical approach is that 50,000 people in Nepal and 2.5 million people in Bihar's five affected districts — Supaul, Saharsa, Madhubani, Darbhanga and Khagaria — have been left homeless. No wonder that Chief Minis ter Nitish Kumar has said this isn't a flood but a "catastrophe".

But what he or the Centre is shying away from saying is that this flood is man-made. No amount of finger-pointing at Kathmandu will change this.

What is more intriguing is that Indian engineers have claimed that they could not carry out the maintenance works due to lack of cooperation from the Nepalese administration and labour strikes in Nepal. If this was the case, why didn't the authorities flag off the issue on an urgent basis? Why weren't they ready for a disaster? Moreover, the water flow in the barrage was much less than its usual capacity when the breach happened.

This exposes the kind of maintenance that was done.

The other question that will be asked now is the efficacy of embanking a river. The Kosi, an embanked river, is known to carry a lot of silt. Over the years its silt load has increased, raising the riverbed.

Once a river is embanked, it will find the path of least resistance. And this is what has happened — the river has gone back to its old course. This hullabaloo about the river changing its course shouldn't surprise us. This is not the first time it has happened. So nature has conspired with man to bring devastation.

T HE FLOODS are back in Bihar. And this time the governments — the state and the Centre — can't just blame the rainfall. If anyone can be blamed for the breach in the Kosi barrage in Nepal and the calamity that has followed, it is New Delhi. Under a 1954 treaty with Nepal, the safety and main- tenance of the embankment is India's responsibility But clear- . ly this has not been done. The re- , sult of such a lackadaisical ap- proach is that 50,000 people in Nepal and 2.5 million people in Bihar's five affected districts — Supaul, Saharsa, Madhubani, Darbhanga and Khagaria — have been left homeless. No won- der that Chief Minis- ter Nitish Kumar has said this isn't a flood but a "catastrophe". But what he or the Centre is shying away from saying is that this flood is man-made. No amount of finger-pointing at Kathmandu will change this.

What is more intriguing is that Indian engineers have claimed that they could not carry out the maintenance works due to lack of cooperation from the Nepalese administration and labour strikes in Nepal. If this was the case, why didn't the authori- ties flag off the is- sue on an urgent basis? Why weren't they ready for a disaster? Moreover, the water flow in the barrage was much less than its usual capac- ity when the breach happened.

This exposes the kind of main- tenance that was done. The other question that will be asked now is the efficacy of embanking a river. The Kosi, an embanked river, is known to carry a lot of silt. Over the years its silt load has in- creased, raising the riverbed. Once a river is embanked, it will find the path of least re- sistance.

And this is what has happened — the river has gone back to its old course. This hul- labaloo about the river chang- ing its course shouldn't sur- prise us. This is not the first time it has happened. So nature has conspired with man to bring devastation.

2008-08-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

there was an article in hindu businessline , telling the lukewarm response to solar projects in tamilnadu. this is surprising and clearly shows that tneb (tamilnadu electricity board) is turning the heat on producing more energy from renewables. i wrote a letter on this to hindu. it is below.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 10:08 PM
Subject: tamilnadu electricity board should follow pacific gas and electric utility example in renewables
To: bleditor@thehindu.co.in
Cc: thehindu@vsnl.com

dear hindu,
i want to bring attention to your article at http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/08/30/stories/2008083051032100.htm

solar and solar thermal is being promoted in big way in california. the california utility pacific gas and electric (pg&e), which has a mandate to get 20% of electricity from renewables by 2010, is ramping up big time on solar and solar thermal energies (apart from wind and geo thermal sources).

i want to highlight the recent deal that pg&e signed 2 deals 2 weeks back bringing total of solar energy production to 800mw. one technology of 550mw is via thin film technology by optisolar, a san francisco bay area based firm and another 250mw is photovoltaic based technology from sunpower corp, another san francisco bay area based firm. infact the 250mw solar power project perhaps is the single most biggest pv based solar plant in entire world.

switching angles, nano solar that provides solar energy via thin films out of copper indium gallium selenide materials is ramping up close to 1000mw of production to cater to upcoming projects (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200808271203DOWJONESDJONLINE000650_FORTUNE5.htm). pg&e has already signed a contract of 900mw with brightsource energy to generate power via solar thermal route.

pg&e is cleverly looking at a bucket of technologies to satisfy the 20% energy goal. one thing to note that is solar energy calls for subsidies either via tax credit or power purchase agreements, but with massive scalability in upcoming years, solar energy should come much closer to grid parity thereby reducing subsidies significantly.

needless to add sir, that coal and nuclear energies are also subsidised either in form of environmental disasters due to coal mining, global warming, dangerous nuclear radiation and toxic waste storage apart from many other fiscal incentives like SEZ's. and also many coal thermal plants being proposed in coastal regions are severely opposed by many coastal area sections including fishermen.

tamilnadu electricity board should tieup for knowledge sharing and skills in solar electricity area with utilities like pg&e so that we can also one of the leaders of renewables. if we go the pg&e route, needless to say that many thousands mega watt of electricity can be produced by non polluting solar and solar thermal and this can be a huge boom in jobs creation/safeguarding our environment/getting carbon credits/being a world leader in fighting climate change.

will tamilnadu electricity board steps upto the challenge or will they be going the same route of polluting coal and dangerous nuclear roads. the choice is clear and it is renewables, for in renewables (along with green building technologies and conservation campaigns) we can safeguard our land and environment for our future generations.

2008-08-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

one small foot note in india's great progress so far. yet another farmer committed suicide last week.

if somebody is reacting to this news, how will that reaction be?

an ipod wielding city youth: so what dude, many lakhs farmers have committed suicide, tell me something new. is rajini's latest film hit or flop? huh?

honorable finance minister who comes from the farm belt of tamilnadu: well, we have given 50,000 crore rupees and not even one single farmer should commit suicide. infact we do not recall any major incidents of suicides since we are always giving cash whenever agriculture sector is under distress.

honorable cricket minister who is also incidentally agriculture minister: as far as i know, these incidents are not happening. infact when i was speaking with sachin tendulkar on his elbow issue yesterday evening, he also did not tell me anything about farmer suicide's.

honorable prime minister: well, we have a super efficient harvard educated finance minister and a very rural politician as agriculture minister. if they are convinced farmer suicide is not a major issue, chalta hai yaar. i do not have time for all small small things. i need to call bush and thank him again for upcoming nuclear fuel supply.

indian media: actually sir, if kareena kappor had reported any farmer suicides we would prompt coverage. or atleast dhoni should say it. we cannot be covering non-news nah!

2008-08-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

there was some interesting comments from the Director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (Kalpakkam).

when queried over some of crucial points like a)nuclear radioactive waste b) nuclear safety in potentially many tens of new nuclear power plants c) nuclear disasters like chernobyl or three mile disasters.

pat came the answer. "it is all a matter of political will"

well sir, the present situation of that 'will' is a disaster. in jadugoda, radioactive mining has been a disaster. not only that there are strong protests in new nuclear mining places in andhra pradesh and meghalaya.

and india's 'will' when it comes to sustainable development is almost zero.

i highly recommend the article in latest siliconeer written by mr.m.v.ramana that exposes the fake nuclear ambition of india.

Despite this less than stellar history and the hand wringing about international sanctions, the DAE has continued to make extravagant predictions. The current projections are for 20,000 MW by the year 2020 and for 207,000 to 275,000 MW by the year 2052. The likelihood of these goals being met is slim at best. But even if they are met, nuclear power would still contribute only about 8-10 percent of the projected electricity capacity in 2020, and about 20 percent in 2052. There is thus little chance of nuclear electricity becoming a significant source of power for India anytime over the next several decades.

It is by no means clear that even with the resumption of international nuclear trade the DAE will be able to generate a significant fraction of the country’s electricity requirements for decades. Further, such electricity is likely to be expensive. In the case of French reactors which are typical of Western supplied power plants, M.R. Srinivasan, former head of the DAE, has stated that, “Recent cost projections show that if an LWR were to be imported from France, the cost of electricity would be too high for the Indian consumer. This is because of the high capital cost of French supplied equipment.” The estimated capital cost of each 1000 MW foreign reactor is about $2 billion or about Rs. 8,000 crores. To this must be added the interest cost during construction, roughly another Rs. 2,000 crores. In all, if one were to think of 10,000 MW of foreign reactors being imported over next decade, the total cost will be Rs. 100,000 crores — no small sum.

A second motivation for the deal represents another of DAE’s failures: in ensuring sufficient supplies of uranium to fuel its nuclear reactors. For the reasons mentioned earlier, India has been unable to import uranium for most of its nuclear reactors. Current uranium production within India is far less than the fuel requirements of its reactors if they are run efficiently. DAEDAE’s desperate efforts to open new uranium mines in the country, including in Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh, which have met with stiff public resistance, primarily because of health impacts of uranium mining and milling on the communities around existing mines.

pipe dream in india nowadays walks around in the name of 'nuclear dream' and as long as india's upper elite who benefit the most from the mindless development can be made dreamers, more such dreams will be floating around.

well americans have refused to buy this fake dream and hence there has NO single new nuclear power plant in past 30 years. but to sell to india's upper elite is an easy task as easy as selling the fake nuclear deal.

2008-08-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

bow to this 11 year old kid in mumbai and watch how eloquently he talks about the importance of mangroves in protecting the great city of mumbai.

my mumbai friends used to tell that the city never left even a single human being hungry every night. if its citizens don't protect the crucial mangroves, the city will be left with no choice except to submerge itself.

in kids like madhav there are small hopes that the city's ecosystem can be saved hence saving the city itself.

2008-08-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

for people wondering the upfront costs and viability of solar power in their residences, they better read mercury news story.

With the PPA, Bunyard and Pambianco paid about $17,000 to SunRun — or $30,000 less than the original installation estimate from installer REC Solar.

Before going solar, McConkie said he was paying about $258 a month for electricity. This summer, his bills have dropped to $20 or $30 a month.

with novel ways like power purchase agreement and tax credits, huge amounts of savings can be done on upfront installation and also whopping savings in monthly basis (with the feeding of solar power back to the grid).

san franscisco bay area is a leader in innovation and in having solar power companies and in solar power installations they are setting a fierce pace for the rest of the world that is acting blind.

in india solar power potential is HUGE to say the least. if only politicians, policy makers, urbanities wake up and realise its potential, the change it can bring in india will also be HUGE in terms of saving our ecosystem from deadly nuclear and polluting coal power apart from huge unsustainable dams on already abused rivers.

2008-08-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

now let me tell you guys, our ceo's have great humor. even in really tense situation our ceo's can make you cry with laughter.

let's take the case of tata's head mr.ratan tata on the controversy over singur plant that is being setup for the small 1 lakh car nano.

“We do not want to come to an area where, we perceive, we are unwanted,” Mr Tata observed.
hello!!!! right from day one, there has been protests against the entire process of land acquisitions and our not-so-communists communists rejected all these protests with police heavyhand. now suddenly, the ceo seems to be doing we-wont-come dance.

He had no doubt that the relocation of the factory would cost the company and its shareholders heavily. “But it will also hit hard West Bengal, where the Tatas decided to come at a time when there was hardly any development as this part of the country was ignored from the investment point of view,” he said.
of course, west bengal needs development, but not developedment. if seizing of land is by force, if development comes via fake SEZ's, if massive environmental violations aid mining and polluting factories, if unsustainable dams are being pushed ruthlessly, let's reject that fake process of development. why can't west bengal develop. how about an agricultural export zone in singur. how about organic agricultural zone in singur. how about incentives to other industries that can come up in singur and its related areas in terms of less land usage like software companies or bpo sectors with good incentives from state government.
we should reject this typical ceo talk of 'if i wont come, there wont be any progress' talk. this is not talk, this is more of a threat.

It is now for the people here to decide whether we are unwanted or whether we will be accepted as good corporate citizens that we are”.
"good corporate citizens"? then how about listening a little bit about dhamra port. how about the massive titanium dioxide plant in southern tamilnadu. how about stop being a broker for a multinational that still does not own responsibility for the world's deadliest industrial disaster.

“We are extremely sensitive about the needs of the rural community and we believe in the balanced growth of rural and industrial development. In Singur, we have taken on lease the land offered to us and we have not come here to exploit any one.”. “Perhaps, many people do not want us to be here,” he said.
"extremely sensitive about the needs of rural community"? oh yeah right. we can ask the people of kalinganagar in orissa for that sensitivity i guess.

bottom line is this. tata group, one of india's premier group, is after maniac profits. profits at any cost. in nano, they wanted free land along with a lot of other incentives so that they can produce a cheap car and in volumes make a killing. not only in singur, but in many cases (a sample of which i have quoted above), the tata group seems to be hell bent on being a money making machine.

and tata it seems seems to be repeating the same line. if not you then somewhere else.
But Tamil Nadu is faced with the threat that Tata could take its business elsewhere. Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman has warned it that Tata “will have alternative plans if things don’t work out in Tamil Nadu.”

why does india's biggest group need to profit on our environment and the blood of rural people. why can't they draw a line and say we have made enough and will be making enough money. but that money will come with more human face and not with a brutal hand.

they can, but they won't. in the dog eat dog corporate world, the top dog wins, even if it bites and destroys anything that it is in front of it.

2008-08-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

cartoons and caricatures pack such a punch when they try to convey the agony of the situation. here's one from the legend david horsey of seattle post intelligencer. all copyrights belong to david horsey. this cartoon is about the russia georgia conflict.

kudos david on a brilliant cartoon. it would be lovely to caricature india's fake development with your cartoons too, except that we would have use blood instead of ink to tell the sorry state on the ground.

2008-08-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

hills, mountains, forests
here we come.

we love ya so deep,
we want to screw up you.

we blast you,
we chew you,
we mine you,
we quarry you.

blind love, they call love,
our love is totally blind for sure.

all due to affection,
for the mountains,
all of us need 'developedment'.

illegal quarries are destroying and eating up like cancer, our vital ecosystems. if i were to blog those, this blog will be a quarry blog. 2 cases one in chamarajanagar, karnataka and one in the archeologically important site in madurai, tamilnadu illustrates the nastiness that is going on in name of 'progress', 'growth' and 'developedment' in india.

2008-08-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

the already turbulent politics of andhra became more turbulent with entry of telugu cinema superstar chiranjeevi.

without commenting on whether chiranjeevi did the right thing or not by entering into politics, his comment yesterday is a great one.

he asked his fans not to rush to hyderabad but to plant trees. this is a welcome statement. but in filmi style he just told a one liner to plant trees.

he should follow up on this to make sure tree planting is taken up in sustainable manner in urban and rural areas so that trees are not planted just because chiranjeevi told but because chiranjeevi is passionate about trees.

the power of cinema stars is immense in india. if only they can raise their voice on important issues without getting into politics not only the issues will get into forefront of the cinema crazed urbanities but also the cinema stars can fully avoid the nasty politics that come along.

2008-08-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

by now we all will be familiar with the word bolt which chewed to dust the 100m and 200m world records in 2008 beijing olympics. like bond, he is bolt, usain bolt. nope. he is much more than bolt, usain bolt.

he is thunder bolt, lightning bolt, cyclone bolt. nope much more. tsunami bolt perhaps? nope he is much more bolt. which is?

he is 'developedment bolt'. like the maniac speed that crushes all his opponents in the 100 and 200 meters race, 'developedment' that is practiced by india's policy makers and cooly supported by india's upper class crushes everything in front of it.

like bolt, against 'developedment bolt' nobody can stand. no law's, no policies, no honest politician, no ngo's, no tribals, no ecosystem. nobody has a chance against both bolt and 'developedment bolt'.

both are merciless.

(i am bolt, 'developedment bolt')

2008-08-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

the struggle continues against destruction that is masking itself as 'development'.

in cuddalore, in eloor, in bhopal, in athirapally, in gundya, in north east in various locations against massive destructive dams, the list is endless. can we learn to walk lightly? or we will reckless money making machine for the richest people and leaving others in the dust?

--------------

From: Shweta Narayan nopvcever@gmail.com

Date: Aug 20, 2008 2:34 AMSubject: Protest against new chemical/ polluting industries in SIPCOT Cuddalore

Join the Residents of SIPCOT in Demanding

"No Further Industrialisation of SIPCOT Cuddalore with Chemical and Polluting Industries"

What:
Public Meeting

When:
22 August 2008 (Friday);
4.00 pm to 6.00 pm

Where:
Opposite Collector's Office in New Town Cuddalore

Background:
Cuddalore is reeling under pollution, and its people are suffering. Chemical industries in Cuddalore have destroyed lives and livelihoods of thousands. According to a latest scientific report prepared by Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute on air pollution in and around SIPCOT chemical industrial estate, there are atleast 94 chemicals in the ambient air, including 15 that are known hazardous air pollutants. The report also estimates that SIPCOT Cuddalore residents are at least 2000 times more likely to contract cancer in their lifetimes due to their exposure to high levels of toxic gases from chemical industries in the region.

Anybody traveling on the Cuddalore-Chidambaram highway can smell the horrible smells from the industrial estate. Entire villages live inside the industrial estate, adjacent to hazardous factories. Gas leaks and industrial accidents are a common feature in SIPCOT Cuddalore.

Rather than take action to reduce the pollution and preventing toxic exposure to the community and environment, the Tamil Nadu Government has earmarked coastal Cuddalore for locating the dirtiest and most hazardous industries in the area. According to senior Government officials, the Government has decided to concentrate polluting industries in Cuddalore based on the perverse logic that it is wiser to pollute an already polluted place.

In the most recent move to pursue its agenda to sacrifice the communities of Cuddalore for the "larger good" the Government has given environmental clearance to a Chlorinated Polyethylene manufacturer – Aria Chemicals to set up its facility in the neighbourhood of Sonanchavadi, a fishing village in SIPCOT phase II.

Aria Chemicals will manufacture 20000 tonnes of Chlorinated Polyethylene. It will use at least 40 tonnes of deadly chemical chlorine daily to achieve its target production. Chlorine is a known toxic volatile gas used regularly in the industrial processes. Exposure to low levels of chlorine can cause eye and nose irritation, cough, change in heart beat and extreme exposure could even result in death.

The Government also has plans to set up the following toxic projects for the region in the future:

l Nagarjuna Oil Refinery, Thyagavelli Panchayat: The 6 million tonne/year refinery is coming up near the coast. This will cause widespread air pollution (see Manali area in North Chennai), and will pollute the sea with oil. Effluents will be disposed at sea. Groundwater will be extracted.
l 1350 MW capacity coal-fired thermal power plant, Naduthittu: The plant will generate more than 300,000 tonnes of toxic flyash, and air pollution.
l SIMA Textile Park, Chinnandikuzhi, Periyapattu village: Much bigger than the Tiruppur dyeing factories, units in this park are set to come up on prime agricultural land. The toxic effluents will be disposed into the sea.
l Shipbuilding Yard, near Cuddalore harbour.

The communities in Cuddalore is up in arms against pollution and polluting industries.
Support their struggle for a toxic free future.

For more details contact:

In Chennai – Shweta Narayan – 9444024315
email: nopvcever@gmail.com

In Cuddalore – T. Arulselvam – 9443737134

Visit: www.sipcotcuddalore.com

2008-08-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

let's see how a 'project' and the ground level 'reality' are so different in india.

first the project:
tamilnadu's local administration minister unveils common effulent treatment plant (cetp) to process the mega effluents coming out of tanniers in trichy district. and the cetp side is telling that
'effluents have come down 1/3rd'!!!!

now the ground level reality:
I am of the firm view that either the individual or the cetps will not be able to treat the effluents that contain more than 275 toxic chemicals—acids, nitrates, chromium, dyes, common and chemical salts. This project is an eyewash and a colossal waste of public money.

The effluents are responsible for the destruction of hundreds of hectares of fertile farmland and several waterborne diseases for over two decades.

now you know the actual situation right. a project for the sake of the project. the ground level story the same as before. with hundreds of tanneries using old production techniques, using mostly illeterate labourers working under hazardous conditions and an industry which has destryoed vast amounts of agricultural land doing an eyewash in launching this cetp just to take care of some procedural things.

in reality, the government should have cracked down on these tanneries, securing the future of thousands of farming families who depend on ground water and local rivers which have been abused by pollution and also giving alternative livelihoods on a well planned manner to the illeterate labourers of the tanneries.

but the government went by old playbook. which is to fool all the people all the time in all the places.

2008-08-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

our honorable prime minister has got really funny. well, i am serious when it tell this. let's see couple of comments from prime minister in an event in new new delhi last week.

from our prime minister,
"What we are trying to do in government is to give concrete shape to those ideas of what I would call 'growth with a human face' or 'growth with social justice'," Singh said.

These ideas and ideals had inspired our national movement, and they continue to inspire those of us who occupy the “center” space in Indian politics, and walk the “Middle Path” on social, political and economic issues.’

India stands as a shining example of a poor country seeking its economic and social salvation within the framework of a liberal and secular democracy."

growth with human face?
where in niyamgiri? in posco issue? in naramada dam issue? in still fighting bhopalis saga? in one of the biggest and massive scam and abuse in independent india in name of SEZ's? in the suicide of lakhs of farmers for past several years? where is the human face. all that is present is abusive face of the government machinery pushing 'growth' for the rich and 'death' for the marginalised.

growth with social justice?
in allowing dow chemicals to come happy to india without taking them to task for the union carbide disaster in bhopal? in allowing massive dams in north east under most fake environmental impact assessment (eia's)? in sleeping for full 5 years when agricultural sector got devastated? in caring a hoot on the situation of tribals and forests for past several years?

india standing as a shining example of 'poor' country seeking solution via the framework of democracy?
shining example in crushing the struggles against ill fated dams, mining projects and polluting factories? shining example in hitting rural farmers in the stomach when land grabbing in name of SEZ's? packing off taslima nasreen to europe in the dark of the night afraid of vote banks? in proposing various legislation's that hit the foundation of environmental laws of india?

well, i told you. our prime minister has become more humours these days.

2008-08-17T19:03:00.001-07:00

how about some catchup on the never ending pollutions, sorry development, of india.

protests continue against the proposed coal power plant in chamalpura in mysore.
polluting units in mangalore told to mend ways. (well they have been told to mend ways nth time before this. so this makes it n+1).
pollution saga continues in tiruppur, tamilnadu.

this is just a cull of the bottom news regarding environment coverage in the media. imagine how bad the situation will be if media actively covers environment just as it covers kareena kapoor or cricket.

well, that is development folks. never ending and never stopping destruction for marginalised communities and environment and never ending and never stopping for the rich businessmen and the upper middle class elite in urban areas.

2008-08-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

way to go california. way to go arnold. way to go the california electricity utility pg&e. bravo california, bravo.

today pg&e announced a huge 800 mw deal to power electricity from solar. this is huge. pge&e has been mandated to procure upto 20% of its electricity from renewables and this utility scale version from sunpower (250mw out of total 800mw) is a huge thing for pv based solar electricity generation.

as the sunpower official tells,
But the SunPower deal, where electricity is generated using silicon-based photo-voltaic solar modules, will "probably have people falling off their chairs from Osaka to Madrid," said Julie Blunden, a SunPower vice president. That's because many still think photo-voltaic systems are only suitable for homes and businesses, she said.

from osaka to madrid, people will notice this huge 250mw deal probably the biggest in the entire world for pv based solar electricity generation. you can also catchup with sunpower ceo interview here.

it is super duper HIGH time that india noticies this also. the potential in a sun soaked country like india is HUGE for solar power. instead of champioining coal based and going to great extent for deadly nuclear power plants, it is high time india shows its leadership to match california in sustainable electricity generation.

(sunpower plant in portugal powering 11mw. plants like this are highly needed in india to generate solar based electricity thereby sparing india from polluting coal power and deadly nuclear power. it is time india bypasses the fed government of america and talks directly with leaders like california on knowledge sharing and partnership for sustainable electricity generation. we do not need india america bhai bhai, but we need india california bhai bhai)

2008-08-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

as this blog chronicles the huge destruction that is happening in india in name of 'development', one common question will be:

'can any of the things that is happening in india in name of development be done more sustainably, more inclusive and more lightly on the environmental impact'.

the answer is yes, yes and yes. check out the note from cseindia on mining. mining in india is done by mainly by huge corporations apart from politicians run companies. but if this mining if done sustainably can be of huge game changer to environment, to local communities and to the revenue generation of india itself.

Is sustainable mining possible?
The CSE report points out that mining cannot be sustainable or truly environment-friendly: one, because all ore bodies are finite and non-renewable and two, because even the best managed mines leave “environmental footprints”. But it also concedes that mining and minerals are necessary. Adds Chandra Bhushan “The issue is not whether mining should be undertaken or not. Rather, it is about how it should be undertaken. It is about ensuring that mining is conducted in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner.”

The report goes on to recommend a range of policy initiatives that could help India meet this challenge. Some of its main recommendations include recognising people’s right to say ‘no’ (mining should not take place without the consent of the people); independent, impartial preparation of EIA reports; disallowing mining in forests; framing stronger mine closure regulations; and “doing more with less – a key to sustainable development”.

we agree with a big YES. if mining (and many development activities like dams, factories, power plants, etc) are done with basic human and environmental parameters, the activitiy will be a huge boom for the local population and also for the rest of india.

but will india care? will its middle class elite bother? will its powerful, rich businessmen and their politician friends have some basic human responsibility?

i do not have much hope. when you care least about human beings, human rights, environment and rule of the land, the more you do destruction in name of development.

after all in india, you can fool all the people all the time in all the places.

2008-08-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

do you know the place in india that has the largest collection of private aircrafts. the people engaged in this business are so rich they also perhaps have the largest fleet of helicopters.

let's take a guess.

how about the diamond hub of surat?
nope.

how about the textile hub of tirupur?
nah.

how about the software headquarters of bangalore?
nada.

how about cinemawallahs of mumbai?
zip.

the place is one of the most abused and enviornmentally destroyed place in india. once called by mahatma gandhi as the 'kashmir of the south', it can be called now as 'death bed of the south'. it is bellary in karnataka.

you name any mess and it is there in bellary.

child labour?
of course.

environmental violations?
oh sure.

destruction of local livelihoods in agriculture and dairy farming?
absolutely.

huge environmental degradation?
we love that. by the way, what is 'environment'?

i want to quote a para from cseindia report as quoted by ibnlive.
Infact, illegal mining is so rampant in Bellary that the CSE report says that there has been a huge drain on the state exchequer. Karnataka lost an estimated Rs25,000 crore. The government now says that it will take a tough stand on illegal mining in Bellary.

the private miners (mostly powerful local and state level politicians) have made couple of thousands of crores. karnataka has lost tens of thousands of crores. the local population + their livelihood + the ecology damaged perhaps beyond repair.

welcome to bellary. welcome to the 'development' of india. we all can have much more bellaries all across india right? who does not want to own a fleet of aircraft's anyways?(the face of bellary, karnataka. with huge mineral resources and absolutely no rules or laws, this places have been ravaged beyond control. in what could have been a boom to the state, local residents if managed sustainably, this place has been loot all place. and cases like this looting is easily called 'development' of india)

2008-08-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

behave like a guest, this is 'developedment india'.

behave like a guest, once upon lived gautama and mahatma here.

behave like a guest for modi is a friend and you are nobody.

behave like a guest for you have no freedom of speech.

behave like a guest as vote bank politics is paramount.

behave like a guest as we have no control over communal forces and infact we tie up with them depending on political situation.

sad, but true. in india not only taslima nasreen has to 'behave' but also many millions of marginalized people have to 'behave within their limits' so that government machinery can do whatever they want.

when the not-so-left comrades sleep with communal forces and the always soft communal congress wants the vote bank, writers like taslima nasreen has no future in india.

2008-08-10T16:28:00.001-07:00

there we go again. as human race, we are more interested in 'rapid action', 'land sovernigty', 'superiority', etc rather than blood and life.

russia - georgia conflict has at minimum taken 2000 lives. innocent mothers, sisters, brothers, kids, men and women - gone in a second by massive bombing by russia.

without going into who is right and who is wrong between russia and georgia, it would seem common sense for both russia and georgia to talked out the issue first before raising the fist. the lives lost are not of the presidents, prime ministers, officers, etc but of innocent people.

shame on entire humanity on this conflict, a totally unwanted and unneeded one.

somebody said,
how many more people have to die,
to tell that lot of people have died.

how much more blood has to flow,
to tell that lot of blood has flown.

how many more women and children have to die,
to tell that precious human lives are getting thrashed.

how many mouths will have to keep quiet,
to tell that entire humanity is dead.

2008-08-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

thy name is progress?
thy name is development?
thy name is growth?

nah...

thy name is pollution,
thy name is destruction,
thy name is SEZ,
thy name is disaster,
thy name is death.

this story in tumkur district of karnataka shows how screwed up india's fake development path is. it has bought pollution, destruction of water sources, death to human being via poisoning of their health and their livelihood.

Kamalamma, 32, showed her hand covered with black dots because of acute allergy to dust. Yashodamma, another resident, said that it was no longer possible to cultivate land because dust covered everything and there was neither rain nor water left in borewells.

who cares about kamalamma and yashodamma. we are more interested in kareena and bipasha. ain't it!!! and in our utter ignorance and carelessness thrives the fake foundation for development that is brining death to our rural people and the enrivonrment in which they depend on.

2008-08-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

the verdict has come. the verdict that vedanta mining can deposit 10 crore rupees annually and gleefully mine in the niyamagiri hills.

i don't think this is just a verdict. this is death sentence for thousands and thousands of tribals who live in the hills and who have been dependent on the ecosystem of niyamagiri.

hindu businessline calls it "a morale booster for the investing community". we should call it a death sentence for the tribals and the environment, both of which are under brutal assault in name of fake development.

sanjiv parikh, one of the lawyers involved in the case puts it eloquently.
He says popular protests will continue and ultimately it is the people who are supreme, not the court. Sanjay Parikh, a lawyer, says the judgment will, for the first time, fix a price that a company will have to spend on the community. He adds that money cannot be a substitute for the land or river taken away from the people and the court will have to restore the lands of the people.

what is tragic is that the supreme court order has come in the face of the recommendation from its own cec. from the link,
The Supreme Court order today has come against the advice of its own Court Empowered Committee, which said in 2005 that mining should not be done on the Niyamagiri hills (see box). The mining activities may pollute or even dry up the sources of the rivers which flow from them, thus ruining the cultivation and livelihoods of the people living downhill.

this is a super sad for india. an india that is ready to put a price on precious natural ecosystems on which depend thousands of thousands of tribals, so that multinational companies can gleefully mint money.

'tragic' is the word that has no meaning on this black day.

2008-08-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

you might want to catch up on the details of proposed neutrino project in the western ghats forests. when our honorable elected ceo 'would try his best' for posco project, anything can happen in india.

as the downtoearth article says “Development” in India has become inherently violent. i would say that 'development' has not only means violence to marginalised communities but also abusive and stomach kicking to most of the people who live on the fringes.

well, that is 'development of india', is it?

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: NBR Alliance <nbralliance@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Subject: More on the INO
To:

Greetings from the Nilgiris!

The New Internationalist has published this article on the upcoming Neutrino Observatory at Singara. It is the main feature on their website - www.newint.org for now. The full article is also posted on: http://www.newint.org/features/special/2008/08/04/tigers-neutrinos/index.php .
There are some strong statements from reputed Conservationists at the end.
Best Regards,
NBR Alliance

Tigers or Neutrinos

A huge new scientific experiment plans to go looking for tiny particles in the middle of India's oldest Biosphere Reserve, moving mountains of rock and earth as it goes.

Singara Hill in the middle of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is the proposed site of the controversial Indian Neutrino Observatory. Tarsh Thekaekara

Tigers are under threat. That's not news. What is new is that the threat comes from a huge science project proposed for a tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu.

India is home to the largest tiger population in the world, and the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is one of the most important tiger habitats in the country. There are plans to put up a major Neutrino Observatory (INO) inside the Singara hill in the middle of this Reserve. It will tunnel more than two kilometres into the hill and build a 100,000 ton iron detector underground.

I grew up in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and instinctively felt the project had to be moved out of here. But I am also a physics graduate and felt I had to talk to everyone involved and take an impartial view of the whole situation. At first I was convinced that the environmentalists were going overboard with their protests. But what is fair when the playing field is not level; when the Government of India, an ex-President and influential top-notch scientists are opposed by a mere handful of concerned environmentalists? Closer inspection brought to light implications too serious to ignore.

The Biosphere Reserve

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) is a large tract of over 5,500 square kilometres of contiguous forest spread across three states and containing six protected areas. It was the first Biosphere Reserve in India, established under UNESCO's Man and Biosphere programme in September 1986. At least four of the major rivers of south India originate in this region - the Bhavani, Moyar, Kabini and Chaliyar. It is also home to a host of endangered and endemic species. In all, 676 species of plants, 173 species of vertebrates, 12 species of amphibians, 38 species of fish, 46 species of reptile, 87 species of birds and 28 species of mammals (including tiger, leopard, gaur, wild dog, bear, deer and elephant) live around the proposed site for the project.

Neutrinos

These are tiny, chargeless, almost massless particles that are generated in nuclear reactions. They pass through matter almost undisturbed - even the earth seems immaterial to them. But a few of them may collide and interact with a nucleus of some element on earth - this is what the physicists hope to detect and study. The laboratory proposes to study atmospheric neutrinos, generated in the sun and stars. Putting it underground ensures that all other particles and rays are naturally filtered out. But not just underground - the 100,000 ton iron detector has to be at least a thousand metres underground.

What exactly we gain by studying them is difficult to define. Fundamental research rarely has any direct applications in everyday life, and essentially only widens the horizon of human understanding. But as far as history has shown, fundamental scientific research has lead to unforeseen and often positive developments for humanity. Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 got him the Nobel Prize only in 1922, and the applications of it – solar cells to generate electricity – are becoming more and more relevant every day.

Then again, Einstein did not threaten the survival of the tiger. Is fundamental research today taking a new stance that could lead us to an unforeseen ecological and environmental crisis, in a world that's paying heavily for its mistakes and struggling to reverse the damage done?

Why here?

The Western Ghats are one of the oldest and most dense rock formations in the world. This makes it ideal for drilling, since it won't collapse easily. The INO team say they cannot drill vertically down, so they have to find a steep hill and drill into it horizontally from the side. Another reason not so widely talked about is that the observatory needs three megawatts of power - and your average Indian hill does not have that kind of power readily to hand. Singara already has a hydroelectric plant, the Pykara Ultimate Stage Hydro Electric Project (PUSHEP) inside it, so this won't be a problem. PUSHEP drilled into the same hill, so all the shears and joints have been mapped and a second tunneling project would be relatively easy. Singara is also just 240 kilometres to Bangalore. But this 'a little more damage won't make much difference' argument is dangerous, and could open up a pandora's box to a host of other R&D projects that need to be underground.

There are a host of other reasons why Singara is ideal - but absolutely no information on the efforts that went into looking for a suitable site. The only other site identified is in the unlikely region of the Lower Himalayas, also next to a power station. It is difficult to believe that no other site can be found - for example, in some parts of Kerala or other parts of the Western Ghats.

An ideal situation would be a complete study of the entire country with appropriate methodology – GIS studies of slopes, accessibility, geology and existing facilities. In the unlikely event that no appropriate site for horizontal drilling exists, alternative sites should be explored with vertical drilling or sub-horizontal drilling. For a project costing nine billion rupees ($180 million) it would be peanuts to conduct the necessary studies to identify a site with fewer environmental implications.

The logical conclusion is that two or three possible sites were chosen, and then the budget was tailor-made to suit one of them. There is a clear disdain for the considerable effort India is putting into conservation; anyone who questions the logic of this exercise is categorized as obscurantist. This is a serious bias that is certainly unexpected from scientists.

Collateral damage

A quick run through the INO website gives the impression that everything is under control – there is not going to be any serious environmental damage. But claims to transparency have been glazed over by their refusal to make public important documents - like the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Environment Management Plan (EMP) - even to serious, established environmentalists like the WWF and Nilgiri Wildlife Environmental Association. This lack of transparency casts a shadow of doubt over all the claims made by the scientists and the long-term motives of the project. Since it is a scientific project without commercial gain, an EIA and EMP is recommended - but not mandatory. But since the size of the project exceeds 20,000 cubic metres, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) requires an EIA. So, somewhere behind all this confusion, the INO team is hiding the EIA and EMP. The project has been given the green light from the MoEF - so these documents ought to be in the public domain. The FAQ website http://www.imsc.res.in/~ino makes lots of apparently sincere claims - but none are backed by hard facts or significant information.

Location

The mostly widely debated issue is the site location. The INO team vehemently deny that it is in the middle of the forest - and insist it is on the (TNEB) Tamil Nadu Electricity Board's land. In fact, the forest department leased a small piece of land to the electricity department for the hydroelectric power plant, and the entrance to the tunnel lies on this land. But it is surrounded by forests. I doubt if the elephants and tigers have been informed that they are no longer welcome on that little piece of land.

Construction

The next issue is the construction. The plan is to excavate 225,000 cubic metres of the hill - despite a complete ban on mining and quarrying in the Nilgiris. The debris will weigh 630,000 tons and will require almost 80,000 truckloads to move it out. Add 100,000 tons for the detector and 35,000 tons of construction material - another 17,000 truckloads. So, during the scheduled four years of construction, every single day there will be 130 truckloads passing through 35 kilometres of forest - and two tiger reserves.

The INO website claims they are going to store the muck close to the site, and will take it out slowly, at the rate of six trucks a day. This seems ludicrous. At this rate, simple maths suggests that it would take 36 years to get rid of it. They couldn't even get all the construction material to the site in four years.

The PUSHEP engineers also had a similar bright idea - with disastrous results. During construction, in May 1996, vast quantities of quarry muck - residue from the tunneling - was dumped into the Karimar water hole, which flows into the Moyar river. The entire river was contaminated, making the water undrinkable for the animals as well as the tribal hamlets downstream. It became so bad that the sluice gate at Glenmorgan had to be opened to flush the river. Even so, there has been a slow leaching of the muck into the river for many years - and there are still 200,000 tons sitting in the middle of the forest. Should they be allowed to add to it?

They also claim they will reuse half the debris for construction. But this sounds like eyewash again. They don't plan to have any major buildings on the surface - so all the debris has to go back into the hill. It seems a little unlikely that they will tunnel out 225,000 cubic metres, only to fill half of it back in.

Elephants

However many trucks there are, they will use a road that cuts through a crucial elephant corridor connecting the Eastern and the Western Ghats. Elephants are long-ranging beasts and migrate over great distances. The migratory paths are passed on genetically, and are not easily re-learned. The INO website claims to employ trackers to monitor elephant movements and regulate construction as necessary. But no biologist has yet managed to convince the elephants to put in their travel itineraries in advance. There are 25 female elephants to every male, with the males being poached for ivory. All calves in a herd are now likely to have the same father. Conservationists are concerned about the limited gene pool and possible in-breeding. Cutting off migratory paths will only add to the pressure.

The last straw

The INO team claims that they have been talking to local conservationists and environmentalists for the last year, and have been completely transparent. Yet they fail even to acknowledge that the 130-year-old Nilgiri Wildlife and Environmental Association - the oldest conservation organization in the country - prepared an independent report. It is based on a site visit by forest officials, scientists, INO representatives and members of the Association. The report categorically states that many of those present 'strove hard to drive home the point: No INO in the Singara area of the Nilgiris'.

The scientists seem genuinely concerned about minimizing the damage the project is going to do to the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. But somehow they don't seem to see that any more damage could be the last straw. One more major threat – even with minimized damage, will be the beginning of the end

'The project will undoubtedly affect the Asian Elephant and almost every other species in the area, but the bigger problem with a project like this is the massive infrastructure development that is going to happen in this fragile area.
'Their offer to offset the damage they are going to cause by putting a small percentage of the budget into conservation is ridiculous. Its like suggesting we kill off a few tigers and elephants, sell all their body parts and use the money for conservation.'
Ajay Desai, the co-chair of IUCN's Asian Elephant Specialist Group

'Development for deprived communities living at the fringe of the Reserve is essential. But a project like this won't benefit the local people at all. Its not like they are going to send our Masinagudi (small town close to the proposed site) boys into the hill with a pick axe each and shovel in each hand. All the money spent on construction and after, will only go to multi-national companies, and will only highlight the difference between the élite and deprived in our country.'
N. Mohanraj, WWF's Coordinator for the Nilgiris and Eastern Ghat Landscape

'Every wildlife habitat has a threshold level of threats it can handle. The Mudumalai Tiger Reserve has already reached that threshold, and is under attack from all sides – the booming, indiscriminate tourist industry, the massive cattle over-grazing, the huge traffic coming through.'
R Arumugam, a biologist working with WWF India, has spent 20 years in the forests around the Reserve.

2008-08-04T15:48:00.001-07:00

as india proceeds at break neck speed to make the rich more richer, the upper middle class more upper, the politicians more powerful and the business more fortune 500 oriented, one of the crucial segments of our population, the marginalized tribal communities have been left to fend for themselves.

in health, in education, in their human rights, in their livelihood, they have stayed and continue to stay in the fringes of india.

and in working with that borderline people, dr.prakash and mandakini amte has done what ideally should be the bread and butter of any government. that is to serve the weaker sections of the society.

dr.prakash and mandakini amte has won the prestigious magsaysay award for 2008.

from the hindu report, it is amazing to see the gamut of work done by this doctor team. indeed let their tribe grow more stronger.

Prakash and Mandakini Amte, a husband-and-wife team of doctors, were cited for community leadership for enhancing the ability of the Madia Gonds tribe in eastern Maharashtra to adapt to modern society through their healing and teaching work.

They abandoned their urban practices in 1974 when Dr. Prakash’s father, Gandhian-humanitarian Baba Amte, called him to take over a new project among the Madia Gonds, who lived on hunting, gathering and shifting cultivation. The couple moved to the remote Hemalkasa region and lived simply among the tribesmen, learned their language and patiently gained their trust.

The couple’s 50-bed hospital and five doctors treat 40,000 patients a year for free. Their school introduced the tribe to settled agriculture — growing vegetables, fruits and irrigated grains organically — and encouraged conservation and protection of forests and wild animals.

2008-08-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

2 dams, 2 different places, 2 different cultures, 2 different languages - but same story and same forest ranges. the story of fake development.

as the athirapilly dam in thrissur district, kerala proceeds at break necks speed to get clearance, the gundia dam (also called gundya) in hasan district, karnataka comes for clearence at bull dozing speed - the forests and the rivers on which the dam is to be built stands as mute witness to the spectacular destruction that is about to come.

as the kerala forum points out, electricity in kerala can be easy saved/generated/etc in a much cleaner and also much efficient manner so that unwanted dams can be avoided.

but in this mania called development, which indian's elite and middle class so easily gets fooled about, the politicians, officials and contractors push destructive projects with the sole aim of making a killing in these multi mega hundreds of crores of money involved.

bravo india. bravo development.

2008-08-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

after a small break, this blog resumes to monitor and note down the non stopping 'development' that is taking place in india...

2008-07-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

as india's mindless mining development continues, the niyamgiri hills in orissa which is under brutal assault from proposed mining from vedanta plc, shows you the classic example of how fake india's development is coming at the cost of ecosystems and tribals.

bbc has a story here.

and there is a funny line from the chief operating officer of vedanta. i quote,
"The only problem is they haven't been developed, once we start exploiting these ores, the day is not far away when we will see the same development in Orissa as we see in Australia."

oh yeah right baby. australia? huh? they told the same thing in tuticorin when the same group started operations and on which there are huge allegations. they told the same thing when their group company is merry polluting cauvery in mettur. many of their counterpart industries have been telling 'next america', 'next sweden' to india's middle class for a long time.

but 'next australia'. we like it. don't we? as the tribals and ecosystem rot in hell, we can create our own little australia's in our own little residential communities in the urban areas where the benefits of this development will finally reach.

2008-07-18T21:30:00.001-07:00

i want to tell some basic things here okay.

1. the prime minister of india has been elected by people of india and as per the constitution of india has every duty to satisfy the basic needs of the people.
2. to serve and to protect is the paramount duty of the prime minister of india.
3. to work for the upliftment of the most weak and marginalized communities of india, is one of the main tasks for electing such a high post leader.

well, for past several weeks, the bhopalis who have been affected by pollution will laugh if you tell the above to them. the prime minister has not even come to meet them for a few minutes inspite of huge struggle by the bhopalis who are in hunger strike in delhi.

but our prime minister in a drop of the hat had huge time to meet the head of reliance industries, who came to the prime minister office due to the sudden proximity his brother got due to the changing political alliance in delhi for india america nuclear bhai bhai deal.

as for the bhopalis, who have suffered the world's deadliest industrial pollution and are STILL not compensated? let them rot in hell. india needs development. ain't it.

2008-07-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

you might want to catch up on the massive multi hundred crore (perhaps potentially multi thousands crore ) 'science' project called "india based neutrino observatory" in one of the most vital tiger and wildlife habitats of india.

the hindu magazine this sunday had a news item on it. you can also check on some of the previous links on this. google search also can help you and this is the official website about the project and here is the faq section

hindu also carried an item which had the question tiger or science and the scientists responded with their own rejoinder.

for a massive 'science' project like this, it was funny to see the response for movement of trucks as follows:
This will be a small addition to the existing traffic average of 5-6 vehicles per HOUR in the daytime from Singara to Masinagudi and more than 100 vehicles per DAY one way from Bandipur towards Mudumalai/Theppakadu, on the route to be traversed by the trucks.

the alliance that is fighting this project has a detailed response on this rejoinder and the entire story. the blog captures nicely all the details.

for 6 vehicles per hour story, here is the point on that from the blog .
The INO figure of 6 trucks per day is not based on any scientific calculation. Using the figures given on the INO website, we have calculated that the volume of the hill to be excavated is 225,000 cubic
metres. The density of granite being about 2.8g/cc, there will be 630,000 tons of debris. At the rate of 6 round trips (which involves 12 disturbances through the forests) in 8 ton trucks (the current road cannot
handle larger trucks) it will take about 36 years to move these 630,000 tons. If, as the scientists have stated half of the debris will be reused in the building of the tunnel etc, this still means it will take them 18
years. Storing the debris is not a solution.

well, the scientists will keep on transporting the debris forever instead of concentrating on their 'science', i guess.

and the sad fact is that western ghats forests is already abused by several national highways that cut through vital forest areas, new highways being planned, massive unsustainable dams being planned, sudden electricity lines being proposed through forests, massive illegal mining, etc. if it is india's forests everything is good to go. let the party on baby!!!!

2008-07-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

if you see the nike soccer ad that is very famous in youtube, an european player (for a team playing against devils) will have a remark. that remark is

"may be they are friendly".

to which the other player will have a curious and amused look.

from the emerging leader and potential future prime minister rahul gandhi, it looks like we have to give a curious look to him on his india america nuclear deal enthusiasm.

how else could we see his gung ho remarks that is not based on even 1% facts but 100% slogannering.

may be he is priming himself to take over the prime minister-ship sooner than latter and is driving with the india america nuclear team.

but let me tell you one thing. nuclear power is definitely not a friendly or an easy power. there are thousands of questions right from ecology to safety to waste management to capabilities, etc and it is simply not a manna from heaven.

well, we have to give rahulji the curious looks anyways for his nuclear enthusiasm.

2008-07-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

as the india america nuclear deal escalates into a political gamesmanship, the crucial issue of nuclear power sustainability and its impact on india's fragile ecosystem per se has been ignored.

this blog has highlighted india's abysmal management of pollution and india's track record in uranium mining in jadugoda in orissa has been a huge shocker for a land that prides itself as the land of buddha and gandhi.

and the industry is obviously elated as they can rake in the moolah in name of building dangerous toxic nuclear power plants.

there is a fantastic article and that too by a industry insider (former europe director of cii) in hindu. i was pleasantly surprised on how the article analyzed the situation in europe and urging india to consider the dangers of nuclear power, the manna from heaven!!!

this blog has severely opposed india america nuclear deal on couple of major factors namely,
* india's track record in managing even basic industrial pollution is abysmal.
* india's track record in uranium mining has been absymal
* india's building of dirty coal power plants itself comes admist severe opposition in many coastal areas and building tens and tens of nuclear power plants will sure invite huge protests
* india's 3000 mw (this is 3% of total electricity of india) at present from nuclear power shows clearly there is NO expertise to fall back on, even if india america nuclear deal comes through.
* india's grid has been badly mutilated with 30% t&d losses and this nuclear power also will be wasting this way unless there is a huge effort to cut down t&d losses to low single digits
* india's solution not lies in following the western model of spend more and more but rather than in preserving ecology and making sure hundreds of millions of rural poor can lead a sustainable lives thereby india's cities and urban areas can lead sustainable lives. this nuclear power plants will act one more straw on camel's back brutalizing our ecosystems.

kudo's to mr.mohan murthi on a very balance article that tells india to pause before commiting a massive leap. a leap so big in terms of finance, in terms of impact on eco system, in terms of national security, that any other country will shudder to do it at one swipe as indian government is planning.

2008-07-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

loot, kill, murder, displace, hit in the stomach - these can be the some of the correct terms that define the fake development in india.

kill - ya we in india like this. when somebody questions corruption, questions pollution, questions fake environmental impact assessment, this methodology in the land of gandhiji, is an often used tool.

2 ground level champions of rural poor were given this gift. when lalit mehta was killed, it was not just killing.

His mutilated body and a belt around his neck suggested he was strangled and his face smashed to deform it beyond recognition. The police buried the body as unidentified the same day. It was later exhumed by his colleagues and taken to his native village, where his last rites were performed.

mutilation - that is what happened to lalit mehta and that is what happening india's poor, tribals and vital ecosystem in name of fake development.

2008-07-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

this blog has repeatedly pointed out the fake development that is happening in india. in india's rural areas, forests, rivers, coastal areas and other vital eco systems, huge unprecedented abuse is happening in name of 'development'.

sunita narain's latest editorial "stink of india's steel frame", captures this horror. india's poor rich industries are thriving at a HUGE cost to india's tribals and ecosystem. quoting from the editorial,

This is the cheap and dirty industrialisation model that we love to thrive upon. In this case, nobody can argue that this industry is poor, small and desperate and so environmental regulations will cost. In this case, industry is highly lucrative; it involves the biggest names in corporate India. But still, as environmental standards would raise costs of production, why bother. After all, the affected villagers are voiceless. They will never make it to page 3 as steel barons will and do, day after day. All I can say is that India’s steel frame stinks.

in past 5 years, the amount of abuse in name of development is huge, so huge that indepedent india has never been assaulted so that rich get richer and poor gets slammed.

welcome to modern india. where 'don't ask, don't tell' is the mantra.

2008-07-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

i have repeatedly highlighted how india's river stands abused in the lunacy called illegal mining. latest hindu story on periyar river highlights it eloquently.

as the comrades have been tom toming the concern of india, its own rulers in kerala seems to be keen on acting deaf and dumb when it comes to its lifeline rivers.

well, fake development has no color. whether it is communist red or rightist saffron or centrist blue - all are fake colors.

2008-07-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

i want to highlight some of the comments of atomic energy commission chairman, honorable Dr Anil Kakodkar here and with my comments inline.

“History will not forgive us” if this is not done now, the AEC Chief said, without naming the deal.
the chief seems to have gotten emotional forgetting the fact that nuclear energy, the manna from heaven, just gives 3000 mw or so in present 100K mw of india. this is just 3%. so there is no past history to talk about for sure!!!!!

“If India is unable to import nuclear reactors or nuclear fuel under international cooperation it must necessarily go for the import of coal to the tune of 1.6 billion tonnes in 2050 alone, unless solar capacity grows at even large levels.” Subjecting a large country to the vagaries of such large coal imports on a regular basis would have shocking economic effects, he said.
why is the chief talking about coal. why not,
a. go for solar power like florida and california is doing for large scale power plants
b. why not make green buildings MANDATORY for government offices, software companies, residential apartments and homes
c. why not make solar water heaters MANDATORY for all urban area provided a scale of economy is reached in the family
d. what about cutting the transmision and distribution loss which ranges a whoppping 30% or so out of 100k mw produced
e. what about fine tuning the massive network of hydel plants that stands on abused rivers
f. what about wind power, a hugely neglected area getting step motherly treatment.

India has one of the largest and best-quality reserves of thorium. Indian atomic scientists want to introduce thorium-based fuel in their FBRs — but this needs plutonium to kick-start the fission. Research is on to use thorium without uranium. Development of thorium-based reactors has been put on high priority.
ya. we all dream of thorium right. and like the tejas aircraft and arjun tank, thorium will be delivered one fine morning.

At the same time, DAE was “leaving no stone unturned” to find new uranium deposits — such as its efforts in Cuddapah basin, Mahadek basin in Meghalaya, the New Delhi fold belt, and in Rajasthan and Haryana. Construction of a 500-MWe prototype FBR was in full swing and its economics were being improved.
that's right. this is development of india. let's do mining in cuddapah, megahalaya amidst severe protest and pollute it dangerously like jadugoda.

mr.chief, we have no history to speak of and we have no facts to back also. in this mania called india america nuclear deal, all basic parameters of sustainable development has been thrown to hell and our future history will be zero as we embark on a fantasy called the india america nuclear deal.

2008-07-05T22:23:00.001-07:00

as oil prices shoot up, america is feeling the pinch as the oil guzzling country that has 5% of world population sucks dry close to 17 to 19 million barrel of the 85 million of oil per day.

of that 17 to 19 million barrel a good amount of the oil comes from niger delta, one of the most polluted parts on earth (of course given stiff competition by several locations in India) as per the 2006 world wildlife fund.

in his book, "curse of the black gold" by photo journalist ed kash, he probes this nasty side of the oil that runs the suv's, luxury vehicles, planes and other types of transportation in america and around the world.

when you pump the oil at the pump, don't alone think of your wallet. also think of the nasty pollution, human rights abuse, war lordism, brutal governance by nigeria authorities also. for then, you will start slowly to make a switch to public transport, smaller cars, hybirds and gradually to total gas (petrol) aversion.

2008-07-04T13:02:00.001-07:00

there we go again sir. let me repeat it okay and you take notes.

1. india needs development and 10% growth.
2. new methods needed and agriculture alone cannot provide jobs
3. we need land for industries so that they setup real estate, recreation and hey of course industries in massive farmers land
4. inflation? damn, i get this question always. it is because of oil. if oil comes back to 100 dollars a barrel, man, i tell you inflation will fall to 5%. till then we have to live with like 12 to 15% inflation.
5. and hey last but not the least, there is criticism that indian government, in which i am managing the finance part, is neglecting farmers. i would like to clarify that we have not ignored tens of thousands of suicides by farmers, not ignored the zero water policy of india, not ignored the sorry state of rivers and waterbodies. so in order to reinforce our concern we announce 5000 crore rupees relief for farmers of tamilnadu.

well, check after 1 month, the same thing will be repeated by our honorable finance minister. he and his colleagues have been saying the same thing and will be saying the same thing in future.

as i had said in one of previous blogs, "in india, you can fool all the people all the time in name of fake development"